Deterministic dynamic network traffic shaping

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for deterministic dynamic shaping of traffic of a communication network are provided.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application claims the benefit of prior filed U.S. Provisional Pat.Application No. 63/107,953, filed Oct. 30, 2020, which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

At least a portion of the disclosure of this patent document containsmaterial that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright ownerhas no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patentdocument or patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to communication networks and, moreparticularly, to deterministic dynamic traffic shaping for communicationnetworks and, more particularly, to latency equalized communicationnetworks.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Many data transport networks have inherent endpoint to endpoint latencyvariations from source to destination end users depending on thelocation of each because all endpoints are at physically differentlocations. While such variation may be acceptable in many applications,certain specific data network use cases may lose effectiveness when allendpoints lack substantially similar latency.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

This document describes systems, methods, and computer-readable mediafor providing deterministic dynamic traffic shaping for communicationnetworks.

For example, a system for controlling a communication network includinga plurality of network communication nodes and a plurality of medialinks is provided. The system may include a first active ranging deviceand a first passive optical coupler device. The first active rangingdevice may include a first ranging device (“RD”) port operative to becommunicatively coupled to a first communication network node of theplurality of network communication nodes by a first media link of theplurality of media links, and a second RD port operative to becommunicatively coupled to the first passive optical coupler device by asecond media link of the plurality of media links. The first passiveoptical coupler device may include a first optical coupler (“OC”) portoperative to be communicatively coupled to a second communicationnetwork node of the plurality of network communication nodes by a thirdmedia link of the plurality of media links, and a second OC portoperative to be communicatively coupled to the second RD port by thesecond media link. The first active ranging device may further include afirst user traffic channel operative to communicatively couple the firstRD port to the second RD port. The first active ranging device mayfurther include a first ranging traffic channel operative tocommunicatively couple a first ranging channel calculator (“RCC”) of thefirst active ranging device to the second RD port. The first passiveoptical coupler device may further include a first optical splitter anda first optical combiner, wherein the first optical splitter isoperative to split first output RD data received by the second OC portinto first RD user traffic data for the first OC port and first outputranging signal traffic data for the first optical combiner, and thefirst optical combiner is operative to combine the first output rangingsignal traffic data from the first optical splitter and end user trafficdata from the first OC port into first input RD data for the second OCport.

As yet another example, a system for controlling a communication networkincluding a plurality of network communication nodes and a plurality ofmedia links is provided. The system may include an active rangingdevice, a first passive optical coupler device, and a second passiveoptical coupler device. The active ranging device may include a firstranging device (“RD”) port operative to be communicatively coupled to afirst communication network node of the plurality of networkcommunication nodes by a first media link of the plurality of medialinks, a second RD port operative to be communicatively coupled to thefirst passive optical coupler device by a second media link of theplurality of media links, a third RD port operative to becommunicatively coupled to a third communication network node of theplurality of network communication nodes by a fourth media link of theplurality of media links, and a fourth RD port operative to becommunicatively coupled to the second passive optical coupler device bya fifth media link of the plurality of media links. The first passiveoptical coupler device may include a first optical coupler (“OC”) portoperative to be communicatively coupled to a second communicationnetwork node of the plurality of network communication nodes by a thirdmedia link of the plurality of media links, and a second OC portoperative to be communicatively coupled to the second RD port by thesecond media link. The second passive optical coupler device may includea third OC port operative to be communicatively coupled to a fourthcommunication network node of the plurality of network communicationnodes by a sixth media link of the plurality of media links, and afourth OC port operative to be communicatively coupled to the fourth RDport by the fifth media link. The active ranging device may furtherinclude a first user traffic channel operative to communicatively couplethe first RD port to the second RD port, a second user traffic channeloperative to communicatively couple the third RD port to the fourth RDport, and a ranging traffic channel operative to alternate betweencommunicatively coupling a ranging channel calculator (“RCC”) of theactive ranging device to the second RD port for transmitting a firstranging signal to the first passive optical coupler device via thesecond media link and receiving the first ranging signal back from thefirst passive optical coupler device via the second media link, andcommunicatively coupling the RCC to the fourth RD port for transmittinga second ranging signal to the second passive optical coupler device viathe fifth media link and receiving the second ranging signal back fromthe second passive optical coupler device via the fifth media link.

This Summary is provided to summarize some example embodiments, so as toprovide a basic understanding of some aspects of the subject matterdescribed in this document. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that thefeatures described in this Summary are only examples and should not beconstrued to narrow the scope or spirit of the subject matter describedherein in any way. Unless otherwise stated, features described in thecontext of one example may be combined or used with features describedin the context of one or more other examples. Other features, aspects,and advantages of the subject matter described herein will becomeapparent from the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The discussion below makes reference to the following drawings, in whichlike reference characters may refer to like parts throughout, and inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system including a portionof a communication network including multiple communication devices anda central network controller device, according to some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 1A is a more detailed schematic view of a system device of thesystem of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating another system including aportion of a communication network including multiple communicationdevices, according to some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating another system including aportion of a communication network including multiple communicationdevices and a deterministic dynamic traffic shaping engine, according tosome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3A is a schematic diagram illustrating another system including aportion of a communication network including multiple communicationdevices and a deterministic dynamic traffic shaping engine, according tosome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating another portion of acommunication network including a deterministic dynamic traffic shapingengine, according to some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating another portion of acommunication network including a deterministic dynamic traffic shapingengine, according to some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating another portion of acommunication network including a deterministic dynamic traffic shapingengine, according to some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating another portion of acommunication network including a deterministic dynamic traffic shapingengine, according to some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating another portion of acommunication network including a deterministic dynamic traffic shapingengine, according to some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating another portion of acommunication network including a deterministic dynamic traffic shapingengine, according to some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating another portion of acommunication network including a deterministic dynamic traffic shapingengine, according to some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating another portion of acommunication network including a deterministic dynamic traffic shapingengine, according to some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for providingdeterministic dynamic traffic shaping for communication networks areprovided.

The terminology used in the description of the various describedembodiments herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used in thedescription of the various described embodiments and the appendedclaims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to includethe plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. The term “and/or” as used herein may refer to and encompassany and all possible combinations of one or more of the associatedlisted items. The terms “includes,” “including,” “comprises,” and/or“comprising,” when used in this specification, may specify the presenceof stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/orcomponents, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or moreother features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components,and/or groups thereof.

The term “if” may, optionally, be construed to mean “when” or “upon” or“in response to determining” or “in response to detecting,” depending onthe context. Similarly, the phrase “if it is determined” or “if [astated condition or event] is detected” may, optionally, be construed tomean “upon determining” or “in response to determining” or “upondetecting [the stated condition or event]” or “in response to detecting[the stated condition or event],” depending on the context.

As used herein, the terms “computer,” “personal computer,” “device,”“computing device,” “router device,” and “controller device” may referto any programmable computer system that is known or that will bedeveloped in the future. In certain embodiments, a computer may becoupled to a network, such as described herein. A computer system may beconfigured with processor-executable software instructions to performthe processes described herein. Such computing devices may be mobiledevices, such as a mobile telephone, data assistant, tablet computer, orother such mobile device. Alternatively, such computing devices may notbe mobile (e.g., in at least certain use cases), such as in the case ofserver computers, desktop computing systems, or systems integrated withnon-mobile components.

As used herein, the terms “component,” “module,” and “system” may beintended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, acombination of hardware and software, software, or software inexecution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being,a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable,a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way ofillustration, both an application running on a server and the server maybe a component. One or more components may reside within a processand/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on onecomputer and/or distributed between two or more computers.

Data communication may include the process of using digital networks totransfer data between participating parties. Digital data may include asequence of ones and zeros arranged in a specific order and grouped indata packets, each of which may be a unit of data made into a singlepackage that may be configured to travel along a given network path tocreate meaningful communication. Latency may be the measure of time ittakes for a data packet to traverse from one end of a network connectionto the other. Round trip delay (“RTD”) may be the time it takes for apacket to travel from one end of the network to the other and back tothe original point. Ultimately, latency may be a measure of the time ittakes to travel between two points at the speed of light through a givenmedia. Data networks may utilize transport media to carry data packetsfrom one point to another. Media may include, but are not limited to,the atmosphere, gasses, optical fiber, metallic cables, and/or the like(e.g., spools of fiber-optic cable and/or multiple patch cables).Transport media in data transport networks may have a variable ordifferent propagation delay as a percentage of the speed of light. Anetwork’s resultant latency of a transmission may be the computation ofthe distance of the media multiplied by the propagation delay as apercentage of the speed of light specific to the media. Most datatransport networks may include inherent endpoint to endpoint latencyvariations from source to end users that may depend on the location ofeach, as all endpoints are usually at physically different locations.This difference can be measured from millimeters to kilometers and,therefore, in terms of latency from picoseconds or nanoseconds toseconds. While this variation may be acceptable in most applications,some specific uses of data networks may require or prefer all endpointsto have substantially similar latency. Some examples of this mayinclude, but are not limited to, financial trading of equitiesderivatives and/or other electronically traded, fungible instruments,e-sports, online gaming, extended reality (“XR”) interactions (e.g.,virtual reality (“VR”), mixed reality (“MR”), augmented reality (“AR”),etc.), video communications, and/or the like. In such applications, avariance of latency can and usually does confer advantage ordisadvantage to certain individual participants in a competitiveenvironment, such as in e-sports or market trading. The resultant effectmay directly impact the gain or loss of money as well as the possibilityof winning or losing competition due to the latency experienced by eachparticipant. In such scenarios, the latency of the data transportnetwork may be a determining factor in the outcome of competingparticipants. A deterministic dynamic traffic shaped communicationnetwork or a latency equalized network (“LEN”) of this disclosure may beconfigured to remove or substantially reduce that latency factor and canlevel the playing field for all participants (e.g., introducedeterministic, measurable and equitable network performance).Importance, therefore, can be placed not on the latency, but on acompetitive environment in which the skill or ability of the competitorsdetermines the win or loss.

In a data center-hosted trading environment, a trading venue (e.g., NewYork Stock Exchange (“NYSE”), Chicago Mercantile Exchange (“CME”),London Metal Exchange (“LME”), etc.) may be located in one part of abuilding and market participants may be hosted in another. Racks ofcomputers may be required to be spread around a large physical space dueto constraints in delivery of power and/or dissipation of heat.Therefore, it may be difficult for any two computers or servers in adata center to have the same latency back to the trading venue. There isoften a variation in the delay because all connections may be bound bythe speed of light, while technology may operate at a high enough speedwhere the speed of light may be the limiting factor.

A deterministic dynamic traffic shaping solution (e.g., a latencyequalization solution or other suitable solution) for communicationnetworks of this disclosure may provide network operators and end usersan opportunity to simplify, accelerate, and secure a communicationprocess for all participants by replacing current systems, which may usemostly hardware, with an electronically dynamic system. Thiselectronically dynamic system may include custom circuits that may bemanaged by an automated software process that may not necessitate thestorage of fibers between market participants. This may createopportunities for more members, as storage space and distance from amatching engine in a data center may no longer be a limitation.

When fibers running through a data center may no longer determine thelatency equalization, there may not be a way to manipulate the length ofthe fiber to create any advantages, accidental or intentional, or toexploit the system for the benefit or detriment of only certainparticipants. A network of this disclosure may provide surety that allparticipants have fair and equal access to the utilization of thenetwork (e.g., receiving market data and/or placing orders). Inaddition, there may be a guarantee that communication of participantdata (e.g., placement of orders and/or receipt of market data) may bedelivered at substantially the exact same time to and from allendpoints. Both of these are advantages that may be impossible toguarantee with a physical fiber. Using proprietary metadata, exactreports of all packets traversing a network of this disclosure may begenerated that can be instantly accessed and recorded for futurereference.

This system may include a managed or unmanaged component, which may beoperative to offer data repacketization. Where accuracy and/or reportingmay be required, a latency insertion engine or deterministic dynamictraffic shaping engine, which may be referred to herein as a BitSpooleror bitspooler, can be deployed, where such a bitspooler may be a devicethat may be inserted at a single point in a data transmission link thatcan determine the natural latency of the link and can be used to helpinsert a custom calculated delay to each link in order to equalize alllinks in a system.

A network of this disclosure may provide a solution to various problemswith certain communication networks, such as latency problems withinmarket trading and/or e-gaming, by replacing a majority of hardware usedat data centers with a system that may eliminate using and storingmultiple fibers and instead may use a combination of circuits andinnovative software that may allow trade related data, such as but notlimited to, market data, trade orders, executed order notifications,and/or the like, to be delivered fairly (e.g., in 3 nanoseconds or less)while also providing automated reports for market data use and/or othercommunication data use. A network of this disclosure may makecompetitive activity on networks fairer by disallowing unnatural fiberor other media advantages. A network of this disclosure may considerablydiminish the amount of physical space required for storing fiber in datacenters. A network of this disclosure may impart an electronicallydynamic, automated system that may provide any suitable data (e.g.,daily market data reports). A network of this disclosure may beconfigured to deliver and timestamp data (e.g., trade data and orders)to all participants in a network in a timely window, thereby providingimproved accuracy and speed. A network of this disclosure (e.g., afield-programmable gate array (“FPGA”) based network) may be configuredto utilize a single fiber that may be coupled to a centralized computer(e.g., controller device 100 of FIG. 1 (e.g., a BitSpooler)) from whichmatching engines may examine, time stamp, and/or sort data (e.g.,orders) for both input and output. A path for developing hardware for anetwork of this disclosure may be to build a custom circuit board andcustom enclosure, which may include, but is not limited to, any suitablenumber of exchange side interfaces, such as (1) data (e.g., 4 × 10G),(2) control (e.g., category 5 cable (“Cat 5”) GigE), and (3) clock(e.g., low voltage differential signaling (“LVDS”) over Cat 5), anysuitable number of participant interfaces, such as (1) 8 × smallform-factor pluggable (“SFP”) at 10G (e.g., zero latency copy marketdata / order entry; striped reduced serialization across all 8), (2)LVDS input connector + LVDS output connector for attachment of a networkapproved box (e.g., as may be provided by Bittware Only), and/or a boardthat may be exactly or substantially the same board in a ParticipantBox.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a portion of any suitablecommunication network system 1 that may include any suitable network ofany suitable number of any suitable type(s) of communication devices(e.g., router devices, end user devices, etc.), such as communication(“comm.”) devices 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, and 116. As shown,in some embodiments, the network may also include any suitable type ofcentral network controller device 100. The dashed lines may indicate twoalternate routes between device 106 and device 114. One route, indicatedby a short dashed line, passes through intermediate devices 102 and 116.Another route, indicated by a long dashed line, passes throughintermediate devices 104 and 102. In other embodiments, there may onlybe a single route between two devices. In these embodiments, a centralcontroller 100 may not be necessary and may be eliminated. In someembodiments, a communication device may query central controller 100 asneeded to determine a route to forward a packet over. As shown in FIG. 1, system 1 may also include one or more data devices, such as datadevice 118, which may be a source of any suitable data 99 that may becommunicatively coupled to one, some, or each of devices 100-116 in anysuitable manner for sharing any suitable data with the device(s) of thenetwork for any suitable purpose.

As shown in FIG. 1A, a system device 120 (e.g., one, some, or each ofdevices 100-118 of system 1 of FIG. 1 ) may include a processorcomponent 12, a memory component 13, a communications component 14, asensor 15, an input/output (“I/O”) component 16, a power supplycomponent 17, a housing 11, and/or a bus 18 that may provide one or morewired or wireless communication links or paths for transferring dataand/or power to, from, or between various other components of device120. In some embodiments, one or more components of device 120 may becombined or omitted. Moreover, device 120 may include other componentsnot combined or included in FIG. 1A and/or several instances of thecomponents shown in FIG. 1A. For the sake of simplicity, only one ofeach of the components of device 120 is shown in FIG. 1A. I/O component16 may include at least one input component (e.g., button, mouse,keyboard, etc.) to receive information from a user and/or at least oneoutput component (e.g., audio speaker, video display, haptic component,etc.) to provide information to a user, such as a touch screen that mayreceive input information through a user’s touch of a display screen andthat may also provide visual information to a user via that same displayscreen. Memory 13 may include one or more storage mediums or media,including for example, a hard-drive, flash memory, permanent memory suchas read-only memory (“ROM”), semi-permanent memory such as random accessmemory (“RAM”), any other suitable type of storage component, or anycombination thereof (e.g., for storing any suitable data (e.g., data19d)). Communications component 14 may be provided to allow device 120to communicate with one or more other devices 120 (e.g., any devicecommunication to/from/between device(s) 100-118 of system 1) using anysuitable communications protocol. Communications component 14 can beoperative to create or connect to a communication network or link of anetwork. Communications component 14 can provide wireless communicationsusing any suitable short-range or long-range communications protocol,such as Wi-Fi (e.g., an 802.11 protocol), Bluetooth, ultra-wideband,radio frequency systems (e.g., 1200 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.6 GHzcommunication systems), near field communication (“NFC”), infrared,protocols used by wireless and cellular telephones and personal e-maildevices, or any other protocol supporting wireless communications.Communications component 14 can also be operative to connect to a wiredcommunications link or directly to another data source wirelessly or viaone or more wired connections or other suitable connection type(s).Communications component 14 may be a network interface that may includethe mechanical, electrical, and/or signaling circuitry for communicatingdata over physical links that may be coupled to other devices of anetwork. Such network interface(s) may be configured to transmit and/orreceive any suitable data using a variety of different communicationprotocols, including, but not limited to, TCP/IP, UDP, ATM, synchronousoptical networks (“SONET”), any suitable wired protocols or wirelessprotocols now known or to be discovered, Frame Relay, Ethernet, FiberDistributed Data Interface (“FDDI”), and/or the like. In someembodiments, one, some, or each of such network interfaces may beconfigured to implement one or more virtual network interfaces, such asfor Virtual Private Network (“VPN”) access.

Sensor 15 may be any suitable sensor that may be configured to sense anysuitable data for device 120 (e.g., location-based data via a GPS sensorsystem, motion data, environmental data, biometric data, etc.). Sensor15 may be a sensor assembly that may include any suitable sensor or anysuitable combination of sensors operative to detect movements of device120 and/or of any user thereof and/or any other characteristics ofdevice 120 and/or of its environment (e.g., physical activity or othercharacteristics of a user of device 120, light content of the deviceenvironment, gas pollution content of the device environment, noisepollution content of the device environment, altitude of the device,etc.). Sensor 15 may include any suitable sensor(s), including, but notlimited to, one or more of a GPS sensor, wireless communication sensor,accelerometer, directional sensor (e.g., compass), gyroscope, motionsensor, pedometer, passive infrared sensor, ultrasonic sensor, microwavesensor, a tomographic motion detector, a camera, a biometric sensor, alight sensor, a timer, or the like. Sensor 15 may include any suitablesensor components or subassemblies for detecting any suitable movementof device 120 and/or of a user thereof. For example, sensor 15 mayinclude one or more three-axis acceleration motion sensors (e.g., anaccelerometer) that may be operative to detect linear acceleration inthree directions (i.e., the x- or left/right direction, the y- orup/down direction, and the z- or forward/backward direction). As anotherexample, sensor 15 may include one or more single-axis or two-axisacceleration motion sensors that may be operative to detect linearacceleration only along each of the x- or left/right direction and they- or up/down direction, or along any other pair of directions. In someembodiments, sensor 15 may include an electrostatic capacitance (e.g.,capacitance-coupling) accelerometer that may be based on siliconmicro-machined micro electro-mechanical systems (“MEMS”) technology,including a heat-based MEMS type accelerometer, a piezoelectric typeaccelerometer, a piezo-resistance type accelerometer, and/or any othersuitable accelerometer (e.g., which may provide a pedometer or othersuitable function). Sensor 15 may be operative to directly or indirectlydetect rotation, rotational movement, angular displacement, tilt,position, orientation, motion along a non-linear (e.g., arcuate) path,or any other non-linear motions. Additionally or alternatively, sensor15 may include one or more angular rate, inertial, and/or gyro-motionsensors or gyroscopes for detecting rotational movement. For example,sensor 15 may include one or more rotating or vibrating elements,optical gyroscopes, vibrating gyroscopes, gas rate gyroscopes, ringgyroscopes, magnetometers (e.g., scalar or vector magnetometers),compasses, and/or the like. Any other suitable sensors may also oralternatively be provided by sensor 15 for detecting motion on device120, such as any suitable pressure sensors, altimeters, or the like.Using sensor 15, device 120 may be configured to determine a velocity,acceleration, orientation, and/or any other suitable motion attribute ofdevice 120. One or more biometric sensors may be multi-modal biometricsensors and/or operative to detect long-lived biometrics, modernliveness (e.g., active, passive, etc.) biometric detection, and/or thelike. Sensor 15 may include a microphone, camera, scanner (e.g., abarcode scanner or any other suitable scanner that may obtain productidentifying information from a code, such as a linear barcode, a matrixbarcode (e.g., a quick response (“QR”) code), or the like), proximitysensor, light detector, temperature sensor, motion sensor, biometricsensor (e.g., a fingerprint reader or other feature (e.g., facial)recognition sensor, which may operate in conjunction with afeature-processing application that may be accessible to device 120 forattempting to authenticate a user), line-in connector for data and/orpower, and/or combinations thereof. In some examples, each sensor can bea separate device, while, in other examples, any combination of two ormore of the sensors can be included within a single device. For example,a gyroscope, accelerometer, photoplethysmogram, galvanic skin responsesensor, and temperature sensor can be included within a wearableelectronic device, such as a smart watch, while a scale, blood pressurecuff, blood glucose monitor, SpO2 sensor, respiration sensor, posturesensor, stress sensor, and asthma inhaler can each be separate devices.While specific examples are provided, it should be appreciated thatother sensors can be used and other combinations of sensors can becombined into a single device. Device 120 can further include a timerthat can be used, for example, to add time dimensions to variousattributes of any detected element(s). Sensor 15 may include anysuitable sensor components or subassemblies for detecting any suitablecharacteristics of any suitable condition of the lighting of theenvironment of device 120. For example, sensor 15 may include anysuitable light sensor that may include, but is not limited to, one ormore ambient visible light color sensors, illuminance ambient lightlevel sensors, ultraviolet (“UV”) index and/or UV radiation ambientlight sensors, and/or the like. Any suitable light sensor or combinationof light sensors may be provided for determining the illuminance orlight level of ambient light in the environment of device 120 (e.g., inlux or lumens per square meter, etc.) and/or for determining the ambientcolor or white point chromaticity of ambient light in the environment ofdevice 120 (e.g., in hue and colorfulness or in x/y parameters withrespect to an x-y chromaticity space, etc.) and/or for determining theUV index or UV radiation in the environment of device 120 (e.g., in UVindex units, etc.). Sensor 15 may include any suitable sensor componentsor subassemblies for detecting any suitable characteristics of anysuitable condition of the air quality of the environment of device 120.For example, sensor 15 may include any suitable air quality sensor thatmay include, but is not limited to, one or more ambient air flow or airvelocity meters, ambient oxygen level sensors, volatile organic compound(“VOC”) sensors, ambient humidity sensors, ambient temperature sensors,and/or the like. Any suitable ambient air sensor or combination ofambient air sensors may be provided for determining the oxygen level ofthe ambient air in the environment of device 120 (e.g., in O₂ % perliter, etc.) and/or for determining the air velocity of the ambient airin the environment of device 120 (e.g., in kilograms per second, etc.)and/or for determining the level of any suitable harmful gas orpotentially harmful substance (e.g., VOC (e.g., any suitable harmfulgasses, scents, odors, etc.) or particulate or dust or pollen or mold orthe like) of the ambient air in the environment of device 120 (e.g., inHG % per liter, etc.) and/or for determining the humidity of the ambientair in the environment of device 100 (e.g., in grams of water per cubicmeter, etc. (e.g., using a hygrometer)) and/or for determining thetemperature of the ambient air in the environment of device 120 (e.g.,in degrees Celsius, etc. (e.g., using a thermometer)). Sensor 15 mayinclude any suitable sensor components or subassemblies for detectingany suitable characteristics of any suitable condition of the soundquality of the environment of device 120. For example, sensor 15 mayinclude any suitable sound quality sensor that may include, but is notlimited to, one or more microphones or the like that may determine thelevel of sound pollution or noise in the environment of device 120(e.g., in decibels, etc.). Sensor 15 may also include any other suitablesensor for determining any other suitable characteristics about a userof device 120 and/or the environment of device 120 and/or any situationwithin which device 120 may be existing. For example, any suitable clockand/or position sensor(s) may be provided to determine the current timeand/or time zone within which device 120 may be located. Sensor 15 maybe embedded in a body (e.g., housing 11) of device 120, such as along abottom surface that may be operative to contact a user, or can bepositioned at any other desirable location. In some examples, differentsensors can be placed in different locations inside or on the surfacesof device 120 (e.g., some located inside housing 11 and some attached toan attachment mechanism (e.g., a wrist band coupled to a housing of awearable device), or the like). In other examples, one or more sensorscan be worn by a user separately as different parts of a single device120 or as different devices. In such cases, the sensors can beconfigured to communicate with device 120 using a wired and/or wirelesstechnology (e.g., via communications component 14). In some examples,sensors can be configured to communicate with each other and/or sharedata collected from one or more sensors.

Power supply 17 can include any suitable circuitry for receiving and/orgenerating power, and for providing such power to one or more of theother components of device 120. For example, power supply assembly 17can be coupled to a power grid (e.g., when device 120 is not acting as aportable device or when a battery of the device is being charged at anelectrical outlet with power generated by an electrical power plant). Asanother example, power supply assembly 17 may be configured to generatepower from a natural source (e.g., solar power using solar cells). Asanother example, power supply assembly 17 can include one or morebatteries for providing power (e.g., when device 120 is acting as aportable device). Device 120 may also be provided with a housing 11 thatmay at least partially enclose one or more of the components of device120 for protection from debris and other degrading forces external todevice 120. Each component of device 120 may be included in the samehousing 11 (e.g., as a single unitary device, such as a portable mediadevice or server) and/or different components may be provided indifferent housings (e.g., a keyboard input component may be provided ina first housing that may be communicatively coupled to a processorcomponent and a display output component that may be provided in asecond housing, such as in a desktop computer set-up). In someembodiments, device 120 may include other components not combined orincluded in those shown or several instances of the components shown.

Processor 12 may be used to run one or more applications, such as anapplication 19 that may be accessible from memory 13 (e.g., as a portionof data 19d) and/or any other suitable source (e.g., from any otherdevice in its system). Application 19 may include, but is not limitedto, one or more operating system applications, firmware applications,communication applications (e.g., for enabling communication of databetween devices), third party service applications, internet browsingapplications (e.g., for interacting with a website provided by a thirdparty subsystem (e.g., a device 118 with a network device 100-116)),application programming interfaces (“APIs”), software development kits(“SDKs”), proprietary (e.g., Sk3w™) applications (e.g., a webapplication or a native application) for enabling device 120 to interactwith an online service and/or one or more data devices 118 and/or thelike, which may include applications for routing protocols, SDN modulesbased on OpenFlow, P4, or other network data plane programmingstandards, machine learning algorithms, network management functions,etc., any other suitable applications, such as applications fordeterministic dynamic traffic shaping and, more particularly, in someembodiments, to equalizing latency in a multi-participant data networkenvironment (e.g., application 319), and/or the like. For example,processor 12 may load an application 19 as an interface program todetermine how instructions or data received via an input component ofI/O component 16 or other component of device 120 (e.g., sensor 15and/or communications component 14) may manipulate the way in whichinformation may be stored (e.g., in memory 13) and/or provided via anoutput component of I/O component 16 and/or communicated to anothersystem device via communications component 14. As one example,application 19 may be a third party application that may be running ondevice 120 (e.g., an application associated with the network of system 1and/or data device 118) that may be loaded on device 120 in any suitablemanner, such as via an application market (e.g., using communicationscomponent 14), such as the Apple App Store or Google Play, or that maybe accessed via an internet application or web browser (e.g., by AppleSafari or Google Chrome) that may be running on device 120 and that maybe pointed to a uniform resource locator (“URL”) whose target or webresource may be managed by or otherwise affiliated with any suitableentity. Any device (e.g., any communication device or controller deviceof a network) may include any suitable special purpose hardware (e.g.,hardware support of high-speed packet processing, hardware support ofmachine learning algorithms, etc.).

Device 120 may be any portable, mobile, wearable, implantable, orhand-held electronic device configured to operate with system 1.Alternatively, device 120 may not be portable during use, but mayinstead be generally stationary. Device 120 can include, but is notlimited to, a media player, video player, still image player, gameplayer, other media player, music recorder, movie or video camera orrecorder, still camera, other media recorder, radio, medical equipment,domestic appliance, smart appliance (e.g., smart door knob, smart doorlock, etc.), transportation vehicle instrument, musical instrument,calculator, cellular telephone, other wireless communication device,personal digital assistant, remote control, pager, computer (e.g., adesktop, laptop, tablet, server, etc.), monitor, television, stereoequipment, set up box, set-top box, wearable device (e.g., an AppleWatch™ by Apple Inc.), boom box, modem, router, printer, kiosk, beacon,server, and any combinations thereof that may be useful as a node of anetwork (e.g., devices 100-116) and/or as a data device (e.g., device118).

A system of components has been developed that allows for deterministicdynamic traffic shaping and, more particularly, in some embodiments, toequalizing latency in a multi-participant data network environment(e.g., when it desired that some or all connections in the network havethe same latency between end points).

In some networked environments, the latencies between different sets ofend points are rarely, if ever, equal, and the network operator may havelimited control over traffic shape. In some embodiments, such as datacenters that may need to have some control over latencies, such controlmay be exercised by physically adding spools of fiber-optic cable and/ormultiple patch cables. For example, as shown in FIG. 2 , a communicationnetwork system 201 may include any suitable number of communicationdevices (e.g., router devices, end user devices, etc.), such ascommunication (“comm.”) devices 202 (e.g., server A), 204 (e.g., serverB), 206 (e.g., server X), 208 (e.g., server Y), and 210 (e.g., serverZ), where each communication device may include any suitable number ofnetwork connection nodes 203 (e.g., 3 network connection nodes 203 peruser communication device as shown in FIG. 2 , although it is to beunderstood that different communication devices may have differentnumbers of network connection nodes). One or more network connectionnodes 203 of a communication device (“CD”) may be provided with orotherwise include any suitable network interface module that may beoperative to provide any suitable interface for any suitable ports. Forexample, a small form-factor pluggable (“SFP”) may be a compact,hot-pluggable network interface module that may be used for bothtelecommunication and data communications applications, where such anSFP interface on networking hardware may be a modular slot for amedia-specific transceiver in order to connect a fiber-optic cable orsometimes a copper cable or other suitable media. An advantage of usingSFPs compared to fixed interfaces (e.g., modular connectors in Ethernetswitches) may be that individual ports can be equipped with any suitabletype of transceiver as needed. An SFP may be operative to carry out anysuitable bi-directional electrical to optical translation at anysuitable speed (e.g., 10 gigabits/second, 25 gigabits/second, 50gigabits/second, 100 gigabits/second, etc.). As shown in FIG. 2 , an SFPmay be provided as a network interface module 205 of one, some, or eachnetwork connection node 203 of one, some, or each communication deviceof system 201, although it is to be understood that any other suitabletype of network interface module may be provided at any networkconnection node of any communication device for supporting any suitablecommunication standards. An interconnect between a network interfacemodule 205 (e.g., SFP) of a network connection node 203 of a firstcommunication device and a network interface module 205 (e.g., SFP) of anetwork connection node 203 of a second communication device may includeany suitable media link or number of suitable media links that may beprovided by any suitable type or types of media for communicativelycoupling the network connection nodes while supporting any suitablecommunication standards. For example, as shown in FIG. 2 , a first spoolor amount 207 ax of fiber-optic cable may communicatively couple anetwork interface module 205 (e.g., SFP) of a network connection node203 of communication device 202 to a network interface module 205 (e.g.,SFP) of a network connection node 203 of communication device 206, asecond spool or amount 207 ay of fiber-optic cable may communicativelycouple another network interface module 205 (e.g., SFP) of anothernetwork connection node 203 of communication device 202 to a networkinterface module 205 (e.g., SFP) of a network connection node 203 ofcommunication device 208, and a third spool or amount 207 bz offiber-optic cable may communicatively couple a network interface module205 (e.g., SFP) of a network connection node 203 of communication device204 to a network interface module 205 (e.g., SFP) of a networkconnection node 203 of communication device 210. As shown, communicationdevice to communication device (“CD-CD”) media link spools 207 ax, 207ay, and 207 bz may be of different lengths or other differing propertiesthat may result in different latencies for the different interconnects(e.g., spool 207 ax may provide a latency or t_(Delay) of 60microseconds, spool 207 ay may provide a latency or t_(Delay) of 58microseconds, while spool 207 bz may provide a latency or t_(Delay) of62 microseconds).

In order to control such differing latencies (e.g., for equalizing thelatency of each of the interconnects between network connection nodes ofsuch a system 201), a length of one or more spools of fiber optic-cablemay be physically adjusted and/or one or more patch cables may be added.However, such approaches may have various downsides. For example, inreality, the adjustments may be for cable length, and may be onlyindirectly for latency. Any manufacturing variation for the cables mayalso affect latency. As another example, different protocols anddifferent packet sizes may result in different latency. As yet anotherexample, there may be no way to actively monitor the cable latencies ina live environment, such that there may be no way to validatecontinuously the integrity of a latency standardized system. Instead, inorder to measure cable latencies for such a system, the following may bedone: (i) the spool of cable may be disconnected at both ends (e.g.,from each network interface module 205 (e.g., SFP) of each networkconnection node 203 of each of the two communication devices); (ii) atime domain reflectometry (“TDR”) meter may be attached to one end;(iii) a latency measurement may be made and manually noted; and (iv) thecable may be reattached. Therefore, if there are any changes to thenetwork topology, all of the foregoing operations may have to berepeated to determine the current latencies of the interconnects of thesystem. Any network upgrade may be an all or nothing scenario, whereby,if an operator’s goal is to maintain a given state of the network, thenchanging the length of one cable may result in having to change all theother cables. However, the use of BitSpooler(s) in the system mayobviate this need to change all the other cables. In situations where anoperator may not control the physical cables, the operator may be at themercy of the entity installing the cables. For every separate patchcable that may be added, the signal to noise ratio (“SNR”) on the cablemay go down. As yet another example, such a system may operate on trustand may not be tamper-proof or tamper-aware. A change in the topology ofa network may be detected and the BitSpooler(s) of the system may beupdated and adjusted accordingly.

Another type of interconnect scheme may be provided that can solve someor all of these problems, while also adding additional capabilities.Such an interconnect scheme may include a combination of at least oneactive component or device, which may be referred to herein as an activeranging and data delay device (“RD”), and at least one other componentor device, which may be referred to herein as a latency standardizationdemarcation point (“LSDP”) or optical coupler, that may becommunicatively coupled to the RD via any suitable media link or numberof suitable media links (e.g., one or more unknown media links) that maybe provided by any suitable type or types of media while supporting anysuitable communication standards (e.g., a spool of fiber-optic cable).While the RD may be an active device, the LSDP can be either a passivedevice or an active device. When combined (e.g., communicatively coupledby any known or unknown media link(s)), an RD and at least one LSDP maybe referred to herein as a latency insertion engine or deterministicdynamic traffic shaping engine or “BitSpooler”. A BitSpooler may beconfigured to allow for electronically modifying latencies within anetwork instead of physically modifying them. Consequently, a BitSpoolermay add both observability and controllability to an existing network.Conceptually, the passive wiring of a system may be replaced by at leastone RD and one or more LSDPs along with any suitable communication medialink(s) therebetween. A BitSpooler may be configured to offer one ormore of the following benefits: (i) it may measure and control latencyrather than cable length; (ii) components of the BitSpooler can beintroduced into an existing network piece-meal without disrupting theexisting network; (iii) the BitSpooler functionality can be activated ona per-link basis; (iv) the SNR on the media link(s) (e.g., fiber-opticcable(s)) may not be reduced, thereby providing greater margin for anetwork operator; and latency controls may be enabled electronicallyrather than physically, which offer one or more of the followingbenefits: (iva) the BitSpooler may be customer equipment agnostic; (ivb)the BitSpooler may be transparent to end-users and/or, equivalently,non-intrusive to customer data; (ivc) the BitSpooler may not depend onwho controls the physical media link(s) (e.g., fiber-optic cable(s)),the BitSpooler may enable the interconnect(s) to be tamper-proof; and/or(ivd) the BitSpooler may enable continuous measurement/monitoring oflatency (e.g., as opposed to one-time measurement).

An exemplary system including such a BitSpooler interconnect scheme maybe shown by a communication network system 301 of FIG. 3 . For example,as shown in FIG. 3 , system 301 may include any suitable number ofcommunication devices (e.g., router devices, end user devices, etc.),such as communication (“comm.”) devices 302 (e.g., server A), 304 (e.g.,server B), 306 (e.g., server X), 308 (e.g., server Y), and 310 (e.g.,server Z), where each communication device may include any suitablenumber of network connection nodes 303 (e.g., 3 network connection nodes203 per user communication device as shown in FIG. 3 , although it is tobe understood that different communication devices may have differentnumbers of network connection nodes). One or more network connectionnodes 303 of a communication device may be provided with or otherwiseinclude any suitable network interface module that may be operative toprovide any suitable interface for any suitable ports. As shown in FIG.3 , an SFP may be provided as a network interface module 305 of one,some, or each network connection node 303 of one, some, or eachcommunication device of system 301, although it is to be understood thatany other suitable type of network interface module may be provided atany network connection node of any communication device for supportingany suitable communication standards. An interconnect between a networkinterface module 305 (e.g., SFP) of a network connection node 303 of afirst communication device and a network interface module 305 (e.g.,SFP) of a network connection node 303 of a second communication devicemay include a BitSpooler and any suitable number of media links that maybe provided by any suitable type or types of media for communicativelycoupling the network connection nodes to the BitSpooler and forcommunicatively coupling components of the BitSpooler (e.g., an RD andan LSDP) to one another while supporting any suitable communicationstandards.

As shown in FIG. 3 , a BitSpooler 399 may include any suitable number ofLSDPs (e.g., three LSDPs 381 x, 381 y, and 381 z) and an RD 321. RD 321may include any suitable number of CD-RD ports 323 (e.g., one or moreI/O ports) and any suitable number of LSDP-RD ports 329 (e.g., one ormore I/O ports). Each LSDP may include a CD-LSDP port 383 (e.g., an I/Oport) and a RD-LSDP port 389 (e.g., an I/O port). Each CD-RD port 323 ofRD 321 may be associated with and coupled to a respective networkinterface module 305 of a respective network connection node 303 of a CDof system 301. Each LSDP-RD port 329 of RD 321 may be associated withand coupled to a RD-LSDP port 389 of a respective LSDP of BitSpooler 399of system 301. A CD-LSDP port 383 of each LSDP of system 301 may beassociated with and coupled to a respective network interface module 305of a respective network connection node 303 of a CD of system 301. Asshown in more detail in FIGS. 4, 5, and/or 6 , an RD may be configuredto communicatively couple a respective CD-RD port to a respectiveLSDP-RD port for forming an RD port pair, thereby enabling a BitSpooler(e.g., RD 321 and the one or more LSDPs of BitSpooler 399) tocommunicatively couple two associated network interface modules of tworespective network connection nodes of a system (e.g., an interconnectbetween a first SFP of server A and an SFP of server X may be formed viaRD 321 and LSDP 381 x and various associated media links, aninterconnect between a second SFP of server A and an SFP of server Y maybe formed via RD 321 and LSDP 381 y and various associated media links,and/or an interconnect between an SFP of server B and an SFP of server Zmay be formed via RD 321 and LSDP 381 z and various associated medialinks).

One or more CD-RD ports 323 of RD 321 may be directly coupled via afixed or known or controlled CD-RD media link to a respective networkinterface module 305 of a respective network connection node 303 ofsystem 301. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 , a first CD-RD media link309 rda 1 may be a fixed or known or controlled media link for directlycoupling a network interface module 305 (e.g., SFP) of a first networkconnection node 303 of communication device 302 to a first CD-RD port323 of RD 321, a second CD-RD media link 309 rda 2 may be a fixed orknown or controlled media link for directly coupling a network interfacemodule 305 (e.g., SFP) of a second network connection node 303 ofcommunication device 302 to a second CD-RD port 323 of RD 321, and athird CD-RD media link 309 rdb may be a fixed or known or controlledmedia link for directly coupling a network interface module 305 (e.g.,SFP) of a network connection node 303 of communication device 304 to athird CD-RD port 323 of RD 321. Each CD-RD media link may be a link of afixed latency or of a negligible latency due to the proximity of RD 321to communication devices 302 and 304 (e.g., when an RD of a BitSpooleris installed at one or more end user communication devices (e.g., whenan RD is installed at the server(s) of a trading venue in a datacenter-hosted trading environment)). Each CD-RD media link associatedwith a BitSpooler may be a link assumed to be very short in lengthand/or a link with a very low or negligible latency. A user or operatorof the system may be enabled to choose any suitable CD-RD media link.Such a link may not be directly rangeable by the BitSpooler (e.g., theBitSpooler may not be configured to send a ranging signal along theCD-RD media link to determine the latency of the link), such that aCD-RD media link may be referred to herein as an unrangeable link or anon-rangeable link of a system with one or more BitSpoolers. Therefore,the system may treat the latency of each CD-RD media link as zero oridentical so as to be negligible for traffic shaping purposes.Alternatively, in some embodiments, a user may determine and define thelength or latency of one, some, or each CD-RD media link and may providethe system (e.g., a processing module (e.g., processing module 312))with such length or latency information such that the latency of one,some, or each CD-RD media link may be used as part of any suitablesystem latency and/or other suitable traffic shaping calculations.

The CD-LSDP port 383 of each LSDP of BitSpooler 399 may be directlycoupled via a fixed or known or controlled CD-LSDP media link to arespective network interface module 305 of a respective networkconnection node 303 of system 301. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 , afirst CD-LSDP media link 309 lpx may be a fixed or known or controlledmedia link for directly coupling a network interface module 305 (e.g.,SFP) of a network connection node 303 of communication device 306 toCD-LSDP port 383 of first LSDP 381 x of BitSpooler 399, a second CD-LSDPmedia link 309 lpy may be a fixed or known or controlled media link fordirectly coupling a network interface module 305 (e.g., SFP) of anetwork connection node 303 of communication device 308 to CD-LSDP port383 of second LSDP 381 y of BitSpooler 399, and a third CD-LSDP medialink 309 lpz may be a fixed or known or controlled media link fordirectly coupling a network interface module 305 (e.g., SFP) of anetwork connection node303 of communication device 310 to CD-LSDP port383 of third LSDP 381 z of BitSpooler 399. Each CD-LSDP media link maybe a link of a fixed latency or of a negligible latency due to theproximity of each LSDP to its respective communication device networkinterface module 305 (e.g., when an LSDP of a BitSpooler is installed atan end user communication device (e.g., when an LSDP is installed at aserver of a respective market participant in a data center-hostedtrading environment)). Each CD-LSDP media link associated with aBitSpooler may be a link assumed to be very short in length and/or alink with a very low or negligible latency. A user or operator of thesystem may be enabled to choose any suitable CD-LSDP media link. Such alink may not be directly rangeable by the BitSpooler (e.g., theBitSpooler may not be configured to send a ranging signal along theCD-LSDP media link to determine the latency of the link), such that aCD-LSDP media link may be referred to herein as an unrangeable link or anon-rangeable link of a system with one or more BitSpoolers. Therefore,the system may treat the latency of each CD-LSDP media link as zero oridentical to one another so as to be negligible for traffic shapingpurposes. Alternatively, in some embodiments, a user may determine anddefine the length or latency of one, some, or each CD-LSDP media linkand may provide the system (e.g., a processing module (e.g., processingmodule 312)) with such length or latency information such that thelatency of one, some, or each CD-LSDP media link may be used as part ofany suitable system latency and/or other suitable traffic shapingcalculations.

An LSDP-RD port 329 of RD 321 of BitSpooler 399 may be coupled to theRD-LSDP port 389 of a respective LSDP of BitSpooler 399 via a variableor adjustable or unknown or uncontrolled RD-LSDP media link of system301. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 , a first RD-LSDP media link 307rdx may be a variable or unknown or uncontrolled media link (e.g., aspool or amount of fiber-optic cable (e.g., spool 207 ax of system 201))for coupling a first LSDP-RD port 329 of RD 321 to the RD-LSDP port 389of first LSDP 381 x of BitSpooler 399 of system 301, a second RD-LSDPmedia link 307 rdy may be a variable or adjustable or unknown oruncontrolled media link (e.g., a spool or amount of fiber-optic cable(e.g., spool 207 ay of system 201)) for coupling a second LSDP-RD port329 of RD 321 to the RD-LSDP port 389 of second LSDP 381 y of BitSpooler399 of system 301, and a third RD-LSDP media link 307 rdz may be avariable or adjustable or unknown or uncontrolled media link (e.g., aspool or amount of fiber-optic cable (e.g., spool 207 bz of system 201))for coupling a third LSDP-RD port 329 of RD 321 to the RD-LSDP port 389of third LSDP 381 z of BitSpooler 399 of system 301. Each RD-LSDP medialink may be a link of a variable or unknown or uncontrolled latency dueto the variable or adjustable or unknown distance between end points ofan interconnect of the communication network of system 301 (e.g., due toan unknown or variable distance between communication devices 302 and306 (e.g., servers A and X), due to an unknown or variable distancebetween communication devices 302 and 308 (e.g., servers A and Y), dueto an unknown or variable distance between communication devices 304 and310 (e.g., servers B and Z), etc.) for any suitable environment or usecase (e.g., when an RD of a BitSpooler is installed at a first end usercommunication device of an interconnect of a communication network(e.g., when an RD is installed at the server(s) of a trading venue in adata center-hosted trading environment) and when an LSDP of theBitSpooler is installed at a second end user communication device of theinterconnect (e.g., when an LSDP is installed at a server of arespective market participant in a data center-hosted tradingenvironment)). Unlike each CD-RD media link and each CD-LSDP link, eachRD-LSDP media link associated with a BitSpooler may be a link of someunknown length and/or a link with an unknown non-negligible latency.While a user or operator or any other entity may be enabled to chooseany suitable RD-LSDP media link, such a RD-LSDP media link may bedirectly rangeable by the BitSpooler (e.g., the BitSpooler may beconfigured to send a ranging signal along the RD-LSDP media link todetermine the latency of the link), such that a RD-LSDP media link maybe referred to herein as a rangeable link of a system with one or moreBitSpoolers. Therefore, the system may treat the latency of each RD-LSDPmedia link as determinable (e.g., periodically or at any given moment)by the system for traffic shaping purposes.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3 , an interconnect between two usercommunication devices of system 301 (e.g., an interconnect between anetwork interface module 305 (e.g., SFP) of a network connection node303 of a first communication device 302 or 304 and a network interfacemodule 305 (e.g., SFP) of a network connection node 303 of a secondcommunication device 306 or 308 or 310) may include a fixed or known orcontrolled CD-RD media link (e.g., one of CD-RD media links 309 rda 1,309 rda 2, and 309 rdb), RD 321 of BitSpooler 399, a variable oradjustable or unknown or uncontrolled RD-LSDP media link (e.g., one ofRD-LSDP media links 307 rdx, 307 rdy, and 307 rdz), an LSDP ofBitSpooler 399 (e.g., one of LSDPs 381 x, 381 y, and 381 z), and a fixedor known or controlled CD-LSDP media link (e.g., one of CD-LSDP medialinks 309 lpx, 309 lpy, and 309 lpz). In a particular embodiment, asshown, the following three interconnects of the communication network ofsystem 301 may be provided: (1) a first interconnect between a networkinterface module 305 (e.g., SFP) of a first network connection node 303of communication device 302 and a network interface module 305 (e.g.,SFP) of a network connection node 303 of communication device 306 (e.g.,an interconnect between server A and server X) may include CD-RD medialink 309 rda 1, a first RD interconnect channel 361-1 between a firstCD-RD port 323 and a first LSDP-RD port 329 of RD 321 of BitSpooler 399that may include a first user traffic channel 351-1 and a particular orshared ranging traffic channel 341, RD-LSDP media link 307 rdx, LSDP 381x of BitSpooler 399, and CD-LSDP media link 309 lpx; (2) a secondinterconnect between a network interface module 305 (e.g., SFP) of asecond network connection node 303 of communication device 302 and anetwork interface module 305 (e.g., SFP) of a network connection node303 of communication device 308 (e.g., an interconnect between server Aand server Y) may include CD-RD media link 309 rda 2, a second RDinterconnect channel 361-2 between a second CD-RD port 323 and a secondLSDP-RD port 329 of RD 321 of BitSpooler 399 that may include a seconduser traffic channel 351-2 and a particular or shared ranging trafficchannel 341, RD-LSDP media link 307 rdy, LSDP 381 y of BitSpooler 399,and CD-LSDP media link 309 lpy; and (3) a third interconnect between anetwork interface module 305 (e.g., SFP) of a network connection node303 of communication device 304 and a network interface module 305(e.g., SFP) of a network connection node 303 of communication device 310(e.g., an interconnect between server B and server Z) may include CD-RDmedia link 309 rdb, a third RD interconnect channel 361-3 between athird CD-RD port 323 and a third LSDP-RD port 329 of RD 321 ofBitSpooler 399 that may include a third user traffic channel 351-3 and aparticular or shared ranging traffic channel 341, RD-LSDP media link 307rdz, LSDP 381 z of BitSpooler 399, and CD-LSDP media link 309 lpz. Asdescribed herein, it is to be understood that data communicated overeach one of the CD-RD media links and over each one of the CD-LSDP medialinks of system 301 of FIG. 3 may be end-user traffic, similar to datacommunicated over the CD-CD media links of system 201 of FIG. 2 , suchthat the use of a BitSpooler need not affect the type of datacommunicated from and/or to an end user communication device, while datacommunicated over each one of the RD-LSDP media links of system 301 ofFIG. 3 may be such end-user traffic and/or ranging traffic that may beunique to the BitSpooler (e.g., as may be generated by one or moreranging traffic channels 341 of the BitSpooler) and utilized by theBitSpooler to enable any suitable traffic shaping of the communicationnetwork system. It is to be noted that, while FIG. 3 may show each oneof such RD-LSDP media links 307 rdx, 307 rdy, and 307 rdz as beingwithin BitSpooler 399, a BitSpooler may be referred to herein as justincluding an RD and one or more LSDPs, while the RD-LSDP media links maynot be considered a portion of the BitSpooler product but rather unknownand variable but rangeable media that may be provided for enabling theBitSpooler to function within a communication network.

A BitSpooler may include or otherwise work in conjunction with anysuitable processing module that may be operative to receive detectedlink data from the BitSpooler regarding any one or more suitable medialinks of the system (e.g., based on any suitable ranging trafficcharacteristics, etc.) and to process such detected link data in orderto generate any suitable control link data that may be operative toadjust any suitable characteristic(s) of any one or more suitable medialinks of the system. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 , a processingmodule 312 may be used to run one or more applications, such as anapplication 319 that may be accessible from any suitable memory 313(e.g., as a portion of data 319 d) and/or any other suitable source(e.g., from any other device in its system), while processing module 312may also be configured to receive any suitable detected link data from adetected link data output port 343 of BitSpooler 399 (e.g., from one ormore ranging traffic channels of the BitSpooler) via any suitabledetected link data communicative coupling 343 c using any suitablecommunication protocol (e.g., 1G Cat 5 PHY cable and/or RJ45 connectorand/or the like), and while processing module 312 may also be configuredto transmit any suitable control link data to a control link data inputport 353 of BitSpooler 399 (e.g., to one or more user traffic channelsof the BitSpooler) via any suitable control link data communicativecoupling 353 c using any suitable communication protocol (e.g., 1G Cat 5PHY cable and/or RJ45 connector and/or the like). For example,processing module 312 may load any suitable application 319 as aninterface program to determine how instructions or data received (e.g.,any suitable detected link data from a detected link data output port ofone or more BitSpoolers) may manipulate the way in which information maybe stored (e.g., in memory 313) and/or transmitted to any suitablesystem device (e.g., any suitable control link data to a control linkdata input port of one or more BitSpoolers). It is to be understoodthat, although processing module 312 may be shown in FIG. 3 to bedistinct and remote from BitSpooler 399, such a processing module mayalternatively be provided on or by BitSpooler 399 itself.

A ranging device may be implemented using any suitable computingdevice(s) or circuitry (e.g., computing device 339 of an RD of FIG. 4 ),including, but not limited to, a field-programmable gate array (“FPGA”),central processing unit (“CPU”), graphics processing unit (“GPU”),application-specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”), micro-controller,and/or any multiple or combinations thereof. Additionally, an RD mayinclude any other suitable components, including, but not limited to,one or more network interface modules (e.g., module 325 of an RD of FIG.4 ), such as SFPs or other suitable transceivers that may be operativeto carry out any suitable bi-directional electrical to opticaltranslation or other suitable translation at any suitable speed (e.g.,10 gigabits/second, 25 gigabits/second, 50 gigabits/second, 100gigabits/second, etc.), one or more fiber optic or optical couplers(e.g., coupler 365 of an RD of FIG. 4 ) or wavelength sensitive couplers(e.g., that may be used as optical splitters/combiners or opticalmultiplexers/demultiplexers or optical add-drop multiplexers inwavelength-division multiplexing (“WDM”) for enabling the combination ofseveral input channels with different wavelengths or the separation ofchannels or the like), and/or the like. It is to be understood that anycomponent or circuitry or module or the like that is described herein asbeing bidirectional may instead be provided by a combination ofentities, some of which may be unidirectional, in order to providebidirectionality in an alternative manner. An RD may be configured tohave any suitable functionalities, including, but not limited to,calculating (e.g., ranging) the native delay between the RD and an LSDPof the BitSpooler (e.g., native delay of any variable or adjustable orunknown or uncontrolled RD-LSDP media link (e.g., one of RD-LSDP medialinks 307 rdx, 307 rdy, and 307 rdz of BitSpooler 301)),programmatically adjusting the delay between the RD and an LSDP of theBitSpooler based on any suitable data (e.g., in accordance with anysuitable policies (e.g., user-defined policies) on a per-link basis) orotherwise deterministically and/or dynamically shaping traffic of thecommunication network, and monitoring the health of the communicationnetwork based on any suitable data (e.g., in accordance with anysuitable policies (e.g., user-defined policies) on a per-link basis),such as determining if a link becomes significantly slower than usual oris cut-off or not useful and then reporting such a determinationimmediately to an operator or other entity with an interest in thenetwork (e.g., via an I/O component of the processing module orotherwise). An RD (e.g., with any suitable on-RD processing or incombination with any other suitable processing (e.g., with processingmodule 312)) may be configured to calculate or range a native delay ofone, some, or each variable or adjustable or unknown or uncontrolledRD-LSDP media link continuously and constantly (e.g., at any suitablefrequency (e.g., each link every millisecond or every second or anyother suitable frequency) and also to adjust one or more of the delaysprovided by one or more of such links for user traffic continuously andconstantly based on such calculations. For example, an RD’s rangingtraffic channel may include any suitable latency calculator circuitrythat may be configured to determine a latency or native delay of one,some, or each user traffic channel between the RD and one, some, or eachLSDP, and the processing module may be operative to receive thedetermined latencies of all channels to calculate what delay to add toone, some, or each channel for effecting a certain result and then suchdata indicative of each delay may be transmitted to each appropriateuser traffic channel of the RD and the user traffic channel of the RDmay use such delay data to adjust the latency of that user trafficchannel (e.g., by adjusting a memory or buffer of that channel). Rangingof one or more links may be carried out using any suitable technology,including, but not limited to, passive ranging (e.g., on a single fiber)using an optical switch (see, e.g., FIG. 5 ), a tunable networkinterface module or tunable SFP (see, e.g., FIG. 6 ), and/or the like,or active ranging using internet protocol (“IP”) based techniques (e.g.,sending packets at layer 3 and/or up in the IP suite (e.g., for WANcommunication networks, etc.)), and/or the like.

FIG. 4 shows a portion of an exemplary communication network system301′, which may be the same as or substantially similar to system 301 ofFIG. 3 , except as otherwise noted. The portion of system 301′ of FIG. 4may include an exemplary RD 321′ that may include an exemplary RDinterconnect channel 361′ between a CD-RD port 323 (e.g., as may becoupled to any suitable CD-RD media link 309 rd) and a LSDP-RD port 329(e.g., as may be coupled to any suitable RD-LSDP media link 307 rd). Asshown, RD interconnect channel 361′ may include an exemplary usertraffic channel 351′ and an exemplary ranging traffic channel 341′. Anysuitable interface module 325 (e.g., SFP) may be provided by RD 321′ atCD-RD port 323 for translating any optical data received by RD 321′ atCD-RD media link 309 rd into electrical data for use by user trafficchannel 351′ and/or for translating any electrical data provided by usertraffic channel 351′ into optical data for transmission onto CD-RD medialink 309 rd. RD 321′ may include any suitable optical coupler 365, suchas an optical multiplexer (e.g., a 2-to-1 multiplexer and a 1-to-2demultiplexer), where LSDP-RD port 329 of RD 321′ may be provided by the“combined” port of optical coupler 365, a first “separated” port 363 ofthe two separated ports of optical coupler 365 may be associated withuser traffic channel 351′, and a second “separated” port 367 of the twoseparated ports of optical coupler 365 may be associated with rangingtraffic channel 341′.

Any suitable interface module 326 (e.g., SFP) may be provided by RD 321′at first separated optical port 363 for translating any optical datareceived by first separated optical port 363 from LSDP-RD port 329 andRD-LSDP media link 307 rd into electrical data for use by user trafficchannel 351′ and/or for translating any electrical data provided by usertraffic channel 351′ into optical data for transmission by firstseparated optical port 363 onto LSDP-RD port 329 and RD-LSDP media link307 rd. Between interface module 325 and interface module 326, usertraffic channel 351′ may include any suitable components for handlingthe translated electrical data. For example, as shown, user trafficchannel 351′ may include a first pin set 352 l, a firstserializer/deserializer (“SerDes”) 354 l, a delay module (“DM”) 358, asecond SerDes 354 r, and a second pin set 352 r, all of which may beprovided on any suitable computing device 339 of RD 321′ (e.g., anFPGA), whereas interface modules 325 and 326 and optical coupler 365 andany intervening (e.g., minimal) optical fibers may be off of computingdevice 339 (e.g., on a circuit board or not) depending on the physicalstructure of the RD to be manufactured. Each one of pin sets 352 l and352 r may include two pairs of differential pins (e.g., one pair foreach direction in which the data may be communicated via the pin set)for handling the electrical data (e.g., for enabling low voltagedifferential signaling (“LVDS”)). Each one of SerDes 354 l and 354 r mayserialize electrical data from a differential pin pair or deserializeelectrical data for a differential pin pair (e.g., depending on which ofthe two directions data may be communicated via the SerDes). DM 358 maybe any suitable circuitry that may be operative to add any suitabledelay or latency to the electrical data being communicated therethrough,such as an adjustable buffer or a memory feature that may hold and delaythe data for a particular amount of clock cycles or any other suitabledelay amount, which may be dictated by any suitable control link datathat may be received at DM 358 via a control link data input port of RD321′ via any suitable control link data communicative coupling 353 cusing any suitable communication protocol from any suitable processingmodule 312 of system 301′. Such data buffering within a user trafficchannel of an RD may be accomplished via memory that may be internal tothe RD or internal to the user traffic channel circuitry (e.g., memoryof a DM on a computing device of an RD (see, e.g., DM 358-1 on computingdevice 339 of FIG. 8 )) and/or via memory that may be external to the RDor external to the user traffic channel circuitry (see, e.g., externalmemory 339 em off of computing device 339 of FIG. 8 ). For example, inthe case of an FPGA computing device, the internal memory can be acombination of distributed and block memory, and may be used for addingrelatively short delays (e.g., on the order of milliseconds). Externalmemory may typically be either static random-access memory (“SRAM”) ordynamic random-access memory (“DRAM”) and may be used for adding longerdelays (e.g., greater than millisecond delays). As one example, a delaymodule may include a dual-port memory, and two pointers (e.g., readpointer and a write pointer). Any suitable logic associated with the RD(e.g., logic in the FPGA) can be used to maintain a difference betweenthe two pointers, thereby maintaining a specified delay (e.g., a certainnumber of clock periods), such as with a first-in-first-out (“FIFO”)buffer (e.g., a read/write memory array). As another example, althoughnot shown, delay of one or more paths could be controlled by the RDusing optical delay lines rather than in the electrical domain.

Any suitable interface module 346 (e.g., SFP) may be provided by RD 321′at second separated optical port 367 for translating any optical datareceived by second separated optical port 367 from LSDP-RD port 329 andRD-LSDP media link 307 rd into electrical data for use by rangingtraffic channel 341′ and/or for translating any electrical data providedby ranging traffic channel 341′ into optical data for transmission bysecond separated optical port 367 onto LSDP-RD port 329 and RD-LSDPmedia link 307 rd. Ranging traffic channel 341′ may include any suitablecomponents for handling the translated electrical data. For example, asshown, ranging traffic channel 341′ may include a pin set 342, a SerDes344, and a ranging channel calculator (“RCC”) 348, all of which may beprovided on any suitable computing device 339 of RD 321′ (e.g., anFPGA), whereas interface module 346 and optical coupler 365 may be offof computing device 339 (e.g., on a circuit board or not) depending onthe physical structure of the RD to be manufactured. Pin set 342 mayinclude two pairs of differential pins (e.g., one pair for eachdirection in which the data may be communicated via the pin set) forhandling the electrical data (e.g., for enabling low voltagedifferential signaling (“LVDS”)). SerDes 344 may serialize electricaldata from a differential pin pair or deserialize electrical data for adifferential pin pair (e.g., depending on which of the two directionsdata may be communicated via the SerDes). RCC 348 may be any suitablecircuitry that may be operative to determine the native delay betweenthe RD and an LSDP associated with the RD interconnect channel 361′including ranging traffic channel 341′ (e.g., native delay of RD-LSDPmedia link 307 rd) and communicate such a calculated native delay as anysuitable detected link data through a detected link data output port ofRD 321′ to any suitable processing module 312 of system 301′ via anysuitable control link data communicative coupling 343 c using anysuitable communication protocol.

An RCC of an RD may be configured to operate as a stop watch that may bestarted when a ranging signal generated by the RD is transmitted fromthe RCC for communication over the remainder of the ranging trafficchannel of the RD and then along its associated RD-LSDP media link andthat may be stopped when that same transmitted ranging signal isreceived by the RCC after being returned back over the RD-LSDP medialink and then through the ranging traffic channel of the RD by the LSDPat the end of the RD-LSDP media link, whereby the amount of timemeasured by such a stop watch may be indicative of the native delay ofthe roundtrip communication path between the RD and the LSDP at eitherends of the RD-LSDP media link. For example, as shown by a portion ofranging traffic channel 341′ in FIG. 7 , RCC 348 may include anysuitable components, including, but not limited to, any suitableprocessing component 348 p, any suitable counter component 348 c, and/orany suitable memory component 348 m, although any other suitableconfiguration may be possible. Processing component 348 p may beconfigured to generate or otherwise access a ranging signal and transmitthat ranging signal along ranging traffic channel 341′ (e.g., to SerDes344 for transmission through pin set 342 and interface module 346 andports 367 and 329 of optical coupler 365) and onto RD-LSDP media link307 rd. Processing component 348 p may also be configured to reset orinitialize or otherwise start a counter of counter component 348 c whenthe ranging signal is transmitted out along ranging traffic channel 341′and then to record the value of the counter of counter component 348 c(e.g., in memory component 348 m) when that same ranging signal isreceived back by processing component 348 p. A product of a clock periodof the counter component and the recorded counter value associated withthe round trip travel of the ranging signal from RCC 348 to the LSDP atthe opposite end of RD-LSDP media link 307 rd and back to RCC 348 may beindicative of the round trip travel time and, thus, the native delay ofthe roundtrip communication path between the RD and the LSDP at oppositeends of the RD-LSDP media link associated with the subject rangingsignal, whereby such measured delay or latency may be indicative of thelength of the RD-LSDP media link. Therefore, this ranging procedure orprocess of an RCC may use a counter operated by a clock with a knownfrequency (e.g., a clock accessible to computing device 339 of RD 321′(e.g., an FPGA)). Such a calculated travel time and/or the raw recordedcounter value may then be made accessible to processing module 312 forany suitable handling (e.g., to process the raw recorded counter valueto determine the travel time, to utilize the calculated travel time ofthe associated RD-LSDP media link of the associated RD interconnectchannel to determine what suitable control link data may be generatedand transmitted for adjusting one or more user traffic channels of thecommunication network system, etc.). RCC 348 of RD 321′ may repeat sucha ranging procedure of transmitting and later receiving a ranging signalfor enabling determination of a latency of RD-LDSP media link 307 rd atany suitable interval or frequency (e.g., once every second or onceevery millisecond or any other suitable frequency) or in response to anysuitable command (e.g., from any suitable controller or processingcomponent of system 301′ (e.g., processing module 312 or otherwise). Atime-out feature may be utilized by such a ranging procedure, whereby ifa transmitted ranging signal is not received back by the RCC before aparticular amount of time (e.g., 0.01 milliseconds or any other suitableduration) has expired (e.g., before the counter reaches a certainvalue), then the ranging procedure associated with that transmittedranging signal may be timed out and data indicative of such a time-outmay be recorded (e.g., in memory component 348 m) before moving on toanother iteration of the ranging procedure, where such a time-out resultmay be utilized to determine that the RD-LSDP media link associated withthe timed-out ranging procedure has been damaged or disconnected orotherwise compromised.

A ranging signal that may be utilized by such a ranging procedure of anRCC may be any suitable signal that may be adequately communicated alongthe RCC’s ranging traffic channel and associated RD-LSDP media link andback again via an LSDP coupled to the RD-LSDP. The ranging signal mayinclude or represent a pattern that may be recognized by the RCC whenthe ranging signal is received back at the RCC. For example, such aranging signal may be or include, but is not limited to, a single pulse(e.g., a signal that may have reduced or minimized possible jitter andthat may be protocol agnostic above the Layer 1 (e.g., Physical Layer)but that may not enable much additional information to be gleaned fromits handling besides native latency of the link), a pseudo-randomsequence (e.g., a signal that may enable an ability of the system toextract additional information about the state of the link beyond nativelatency (e.g., bit error rate may be determined based on how well thetransmitted sequence is received (e.g., a bit error rate for thereceived vs. transmitted ranging signal may be compared to a minimumerror rate threshold and if exceeded may result in an alarm beingtriggered for use by an operator to further inspect the link) or a powerloss may be determined based on how much of the power associated withthe transmitted sequence is received (e.g., a power loss rate for thereceived vs. transmitted ranging signal may be compared to a minimumpower loss rate threshold and if exceeded may result in an alarm beingtriggered for use by an operator to further inspect the link), and/orthe like), although such a sequence may potentially result in morejitter relative to a single pulse), a signal according to a proprietaryprotocol (e.g., a signal that may enable an ability of the system toextract even more additional information about the state of the linkbeyond native latency (e.g., using digital signal processing (“DSP”)),although such a signal may potentially result in more jitter relative toa signal with a pseudo-random sequence), an Ethernet frame (e.g., asignal that may enable an ability of the system to extract even moreadditional information about the state of the link beyond native latency(e.g., using ethernet protocol, which may allow for the use of theinter-frame gap (“IFG”) to derive information about slight clockdifferences, etc.) and/or that may potentially provide a greater abilityto integrate into an existing system, although such a signal may requireimplementation of an Ethernet media access controller (“MAC”) and/or maypotentially result in more jitter relative to a signal with aproprietary protocol), and/or a Layer 3 packet (e.g., a signal that mayallow for the presence of intermediate equipment in the link beingmeasured (e.g., network switches and/or routers), although such a signalmay potentially result in more measurement jitter relative to othersignal types). In some embodiments, the system may be configured toensure that any ranging signal of any ranging traffic data of anyranging traffic channel of an RD interconnect channel may becommunicated out from the RD at a different wavelength and/or frequencythan that of any end user traffic data of any end user traffic channelof that same RD interconnect channel (e.g., such that an associated LSDPmay be enabled to split or filter or otherwise distinguish between thedifferent types of traffic data that may be communicated to the LSDPfrom the RD via an RD-LSDP media link).

An LSDP may be configured to enable the receipt and return of a rangingsignal (e.g., ranging traffic) to an RD via an associated RD-LSDP medialink (e.g., as looped back ranging traffic) while also enabling anyend-user traffic to be passed through the LSDP for receipt by an enduser device. An LSDP may include any suitable optical coupler that mayallow the establishment of a latency standardization demarcation point.Depending on the type of multiplexing and/or other mechanisms used at anassociated RD, the LDSP implementations may differ from each other inone or more ways. However, generally, as shown in FIG. 9 , an LSDP, suchas LSDP 381 x of system 301, may include an optical coupler 385 that maybe positioned between the LSDP’s CD-LSDP port 383 and the LSDP’s RD-LSDPport 389 for enabling and restricting the flow of various types oftraffic therebetween. As described herein, it is to be understood thatdata communicated over each one of the CD-RD media links and over eachone of the CD-LSDP media links of system 301 (e.g., CD-LSDP medialink(s) 309 lpx of FIG. 9 ) may be end-user traffic, similar to datacommunicated over the CD-CD media links of system 201, such that the useof a BitSpooler need not affect the type of data communicated fromand/or to an end user communication device (e.g., communication device306 of FIG. 9 ), while data communicated over each one of the RD-LSDPmedia links of system 301 (e.g., RD-LSDP media link(s) 307 rdx of FIG. 9) may be such end-user traffic and/or ranging traffic that may be uniqueto the BitSpooler (e.g., a ranging signal as may be generated by an RCCof one or more ranging traffic channels 341 of the RD) and utilized bythe BitSpooler to enable any suitable traffic shaping of thecommunication network system. Therefore, an optical coupler of an LSDPmay be configured to (1) split any incoming data (e.g., light or opticaldata) received from an RD via an RD-LSDP media link at the LSDP’sRD-LSDP port into two or more paths based on differing frequencies orwavelengths of the received incoming data so as to separate any end usertraffic data from any ranging traffic data (e.g., any end user trafficdata may be provided at one or more standard wavelengths (e.g., 1310nanometers) while any ranging traffic data may be provided with thesystem at any other separate wavelength (e.g., 1610 nanometers) that maybe filtered or split by the optical coupler), (2) pass any such splitend user traffic data out from the LSDP via the LSDP’s CD-LSDP port inorder for such end user traffic data to be received by the target enduser communication device, (3) combine any such split ranging trafficdata with any end user traffic data received by the optical coupler fromthe LSDP’s CD-LSDP port, and (4) pass any such combined traffic data outfrom the LSDP via the LSDP’s RD-LSDP port in order for such combinedtraffic data to be received by the RD. Particularly, in someembodiments, as shown in FIG. 9 , optical coupler 385 of LSDP 381 x mayinclude any suitable optical splitter 384 and any suitable opticalcombiner 386. Optical splitter 384 may be configured to (1) split anyincoming data (e.g., light or optical data) received from RD 321 viaRD-LSDP link 307 rdx at RD-LSDP port 389 of LSDP 381 x into two or morepaths based on differing frequencies or wavelengths of the receivedincoming data so as to separate any end user traffic data from anyranging traffic data (e.g., filter out any ranging traffic data that maybe at a particular ranging wavelength of the system (e.g., 1610nanometers) that may be different than any wavelength(s) at which anyuser data traffic may be communicated through the system), (2) pass anysuch split end user traffic data out from LSDP 381 x via CD-LSDP port383 and onto CD-LSDP media link 309 lpx in order for such end usertraffic data to be received by target end user communication device 306,and (3) pass any such split ranging traffic data to optical combiner386. Optical combiner 386 may be configured to (1) combine any suchsplit ranging traffic data from optical splitter 384 with any end usertraffic data received by optical combiner 386 from CD-LSDP port 383(e.g., end user traffic data communicated from end user communicationdevice 306 to LSDP 381 x via CD-LSDP media link 309 lpx), and (2) passany such combined traffic data out from LSDP 381 x via RD-LSDP port 389and onto RD-LSDP media link 307 rdx in order for such combined trafficdata to be received by RD 321. This may establish a round trip routebetween an RD and LSDP for any particular ranging signal, which mayenable the RD (e.g., the RD’s RCC) to determine the time it takes for aranging signal (e.g., data packet or otherwise as ranging traffic data)to exit an RD and return to the RD after traveling along a full lengthof a variable RD-LSDP media link twice (e.g., along one length to theLSDP and the same length again back to the RD), where such a durationshould be about twice the amount of time any traffic data (e.g., enduser data) may take to travel from the RD to the LSDP and, thus, to aproximate end user device. Therefore, for any LSDP coupled between an RDand an end user communication device, any end user traffic data receivedby the LSDP from the RD may not be returned by the LSDP to the RD, butinstead such end user traffic data may be passed on (e.g.,transparently) by the LSDP to the target end user communication device,while any ranging traffic data received by the LSDP from the RD may bereturned by the LSDP to the RD in combination with any end user trafficdata that may have been received by the LSDP from the end usercommunication device. It is to be understood that any reference tocombined traffic data may include a combination of ranging traffic dataand end user tragic data, or only ranging traffic data, or only end usertraffic data, depending on what type of data may be flowing through theLSDP during a particular situation.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4 , RD interconnect channel 361′ may includea user traffic channel 351′ and a ranging traffic channel 341′ that isutilized only with user traffic channel 351′ (e.g., any optical dataprovided by ranging traffic channel 341′ may be communicated throughLSDP-RD port 329 and onto RD-LSDP media link 307 rd, which may be alsoutilized by user traffic channel 351′). Although not shown in FIG. 4 ,another RD interconnect channel of RD 321′ may include another rangingtraffic channel that is utilized in a 1-to-1 manner with another usertraffic channel (e.g., RD interconnect channel 361-1 of RD 321 of FIG. 3may include user traffic channel 361-1 and a first ranging trafficchannel (e.g., a first distinct channel of element 341 of FIG. 3 ) thatmay be similar to ranging traffic channel 341′, RD interconnect channel361-2 of RD 321 of FIG. 3 may include user traffic channel 361-2 and asecond ranging traffic channel (e.g., a second distinct channel ofelement 341 of FIG. 3 ) that may be similar to ranging traffic channel341′ of FIG. 4 , and RD interconnect channel 361-3 of RD 321 of FIG. 3may include user traffic channel 361-3 and a third ranging trafficchannel (e.g., a third distinct channel of element 341 of FIG. 3 ) thatmay be similar to ranging traffic channel 341′ of FIG. 4 ).

The communication network system may not require any changes to theend-user equipment (e.g., end user communication devices, such asdevices 302, 304, 306, 308, and 310, and/or end user media links, suchas RD-LSDP media links 307 rd (e.g., links 307 rdx, 307 rdy, and 307rdz)), such that any end user traffic data and any ranging traffic dataof the system may be transmitted on a single, existing fiber. Asdescribed, this may be accomplished through the use of WDM, where onesolution may be to include a multiplexer/demultiplexer for each link,thereby possibly using twice the number of SerDes. However, aconfiguration of a ranging traffic channel that may be provided for usein conjunction with only one associated user traffic channel (see, e.g.,RD interconnect channel 361 of FIG. 4 ) may not be necessary orefficient in all situations and may be wasteful. Instead, a singleranging traffic channel (e.g., a single RCC) may be utilized with two ormore distinct user traffic channels and, thus, two or more RDinterconnect channels, which may reduce the amount of RD circuitry(e.g., reduce the number of SerDes and/or SFP’s of the RD). For example,for an RD with three distinct user traffic channels (e.g., RD 321 withuser traffic channels 351-1, 351-2, and 351-3), while some RDembodiments may include three distinct ranging traffic channels forsupporting the three distinct user traffic channels (e.g., threedistinct versions of the ranging traffic channel 341′ and user trafficchannel 351′ combination of FIG. 4 ), other RD embodiments may insteadsupport those three distinct user traffic channels with a single rangingtraffic channel. For example, it is possible support multiple usertraffic channels by utilizing a single ranging traffic channel that maybe configured to use a 1:N optical switch for ranging the multiple RDinterconnect channels of the multiple user traffic channels one afterthe other in a round-robin fashion, or by utilizing a single rangingtraffic channel that may be configured to use a tunable SFP and apassive wavelength division multiplexer for using different frequenciesfor ranging the multiple RD interconnect channels of the multiple usertraffic channels.

FIG. 5 shows a portion of an exemplary communication network system301″, which may be the same as or substantially similar to system 301 ofFIG. 3 , except as otherwise noted, for providing an RD with multipleuser traffic channels that may be utilized with a single ranging trafficchannel. The portion of system 301″ of FIG. 5 may include an exemplaryRD 321″ that may include (1) an exemplary first RD interconnect channel361″-1 with an exemplary first user traffic channel 351″-1 between afirst CD-RD port 323 (e.g., as may be coupled to CD-RD media link 309rda 1) and a first LSDP-RD port 329 of a first optical coupler 365″-1(e.g., as may be coupled to RD-LSDP media link 307 rdx), (2) anexemplary second RD interconnect channel 361″-2 with an exemplary seconduser traffic channel 351″-2 between a second CD-RD port 323 (e.g., asmay be coupled to CD-RD media link 309 rda 2) and a second LSDP-RD port329 of a second optical coupler 365″-2 (e.g., as may be coupled toRD-LSDP media link 307 rdy), (3) an exemplary third RD interconnectchannel 361″-3 with an exemplary third user traffic channel 351″-3between a third CD-RD port 323 (e.g., as may be coupled to CD-RD medialink 309 rdb) and a third LSDP-RD port 329 of a third optical coupler365″-3 (e.g., as may be coupled to RD-LSDP media link 307 rdz), and (4)a ranging traffic channel 341″ that may be shared by each one of RDinterconnect channels 361″-1, 361″-2, and 361″-3. As shown, in someembodiments, each one of user traffic channels 351″-1, 351″-2, and351″-3 of FIG. 5 may be the same as user traffic channel 351′ of FIG. 4, where any suitable interface module 325 (e.g., SFP) may be provided byeach user traffic channel of RD 321″ at the user traffic channel’s CD-RDport 323 for translating any optical data received by RD 321″ at aparticular CD-RD media link 309 rd into electrical data for use by theuser traffic channel and/or for translating any electrical data providedby the user traffic channel into optical data for transmission onto theparticular CD-RD media link 309 rd. Each one of user traffic channels351″-1, 351″-2, and 351″-3 of RD 321″ may also include any suitable pinsets, SerDes, additional interface module (e.g., SFP), and DMcomponent(s) (e.g., as described with respect to user traffic channel351′ of FIG. 4 ). As described with respect to DM component 358 of RD321′, each DM component of each one of user traffic channels 351″-1,351″-2, and 351″-3 of RD 321″ may be operative to add any suitable delayor latency to the electrical data being communicated therethrough. Suchdelay of each DM may be dictated independently from that of each of theother DMs of the other user traffic channels of RD 321″ by any suitablecontrol link data that may be received at the DM via a control link datainput port via any suitable control link data communicative coupling 353c using any suitable communication protocol from any suitable processingmodule 312 of system 301″. Each one of user traffic channels 351″-1,351″-2, and 351″-3 of RD 321″ may also include an optical coupler 365″(e.g., a respective one of couplers 365″-1, 365″-2, and 365″-3), such asan optical multiplexer (e.g., a 2-to-1 multiplexer and a 1-to-2demultiplexer), where an LSDP-RD port 329 of each user traffic channelof RD 321″ may be provided by the “combined” port of a respectiveoptical coupler 365″, and where each optical coupler 365″ of RD 321″ mayalso include a first “separated” port (e.g., port 363 of coupler 365 ofFIG. 4 ) of the two separated ports of the coupler and may be associatedwith the coupler’s associated user traffic channel 351″, and a second“separated” port (e.g., port 367 of coupler 365 of FIG. 4 ) of the twoseparated ports of the coupler and may be associated with shared rangingtraffic channel 341″. As described with respect to interface module orSFP 326 of RD 321′, each additional or right side SFP component of eachone of user traffic channels 351″-1, 351″-2, and 351″-3 of RD 321″ maybe provided by RD 321″ at a first separated optical port of theparticular channel’s coupler 365″ for translating any optical datareceived by that first separated optical port from the LSDP-RD port 329of the particular channel’s coupler 365″ and associated RD-LSDP medialink 307 rd into electrical data for use by the particular user trafficchannel 351″ and/or for translating any electrical data provided by theparticular user traffic channel 351″ into optical data for transmissionby the first separated optical port of the particular channel’s coupler365″ onto LSDP-RD port 329 of the particular channel’s coupler 365″ andassociated RD-LSDP media link 307 rd.

As shown, like ranging traffic channel 341′ of RD 321′ of FIG. 4 ,ranging traffic channel 341″ of RD 321″ of FIG. 5 may include an RCC348, SerDes 344, pin set 342, and any suitable interface module 346(e.g., SFP). However, unlike in ranging traffic channel 341′ of RD 321′of FIG. 4 where its interface module 346 (e.g., SFP) may be provided atsecond separated optical port 367 of coupler 365 for translating anyoptical data received by second separated optical port 367 from thecoupler’s LSDP-RD port 329 and RD-LSDP media link 307 rd into electricaldata for use by ranging traffic channel 341′ and/or for translating anyelectrical data provided by ranging traffic channel 341′ into opticaldata for transmission by second separated optical port 367 of coupler365 onto the coupler’s LSDP-RD port 329 and RD-LSDP media link 307 rd,such an interface module 346 of ranging traffic channel 341″ of RD 321″of FIG. 5 may be coupled to the second separated optical port of eachone of the RD interconnect channel couplers 365″-1, 365″-2, and 365″-3via any suitable optical switch 347. As shown, optical switch 347 may beany suitable switch that may be operative to communicatively coupleinterface module 346 of ranging traffic channel 341″ selectively to oneof N LSDP communication paths 349″, such as selectively to one of (1) afirst LSDP communication path 349″-1 that may communicatively coupleswitch 347 (and, thus, selectively SFP 346) to the second separatedoptical port of coupler 365″-1 of first RD interconnect channel 361″-1(e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341″ is to be utilized with firstuser traffic channel 351″-1), (2) a second LSDP communication path349″-2 that may communicatively couple switch 347 (and, thus,selectively SFP 346) to the second separated optical port of coupler365″-2 of second RD interconnect channel 361″-2 (e.g., when rangingtraffic channel 341″ is to be utilized with second user traffic channel351″-2), and (3) a third LSDP communication path 349″-3 that maycommunicatively couple switch 347 (and, thus, selectively SFP 346) tothe second separated optical port of coupler 365″-3 of third RDinterconnect channel 361″-3 (e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341″ isto be utilized with third user traffic channel 351″-3). Any suitablecontrol signal CNTRL may be utilized to select which one of theavailable LSDP communication paths 349″ is to be communicatively coupledto interface module 346 of ranging traffic channel 341″ at any giventime. For example, control signal CNTRL may be controlled by processingcomponent 348 m of RCC 348 or any other suitable processing component orcontroller of any suitable computing device 339 of RD 321″ (e.g., anFPGA) and/or processing module 312 of system 301″. In other embodiments,although not shown, switch 347 may be an electrical switch operating inthe electrical domain if positioned to the left of interface module 346in FIG. 5 , but may utilize a distinct module 346 at each channel outputof the switch.

Like ranging traffic channel 341′ of RD 321′ of FIG. 4 , ranging trafficchannel 341″ of RD 321″ of FIG. 5 may utilize RCC 348 to carry out aranging procedure of transmitting and later receiving a ranging signalfor enabling determination of a latency of an RD-LDSP media link 307 rdcommunicatively coupled to RCC 348. However, unlike RCC 348 of rangingtraffic channel 341′ of RD 321′ of FIG. 4 that may be used fordetermining the latency of just one RD-LDSP media link 307 rdcommunicatively coupled to just one user traffic channel 351′, RCC 348of ranging traffic channel 341″ of RD 321″ of FIG. 5 may be used forselectively determining the latency of one, some, or each one of variousRD-LDSP media links 307 rd, such as RD-LDSP media links 307 rdx, 307rdy, and 307 rdz, that may be communicatively coupled to variousrespective user traffic channels 351″, such as user traffic channel351″-1, user traffic channel 351″-2, and user traffic channel 351″-3,through the use of switch 347 and control signal CNTRL. For example,switch 347 and control signal CNTRL may be configured to constantlycycle through coupling RCC 348 to different ones of the available LSDPcommunication paths 349″-1 through 349-3 at any suitable frequency(e.g., to each one of the available LSDP communication paths everysecond or every millisecond or at any other suitable frequency) in orderfor RCC 348 to carry out a ranging procedure on each one of the RD-LSDPmedia links coupled to a respective one of the available LSDPcommunication paths in a periodic fashion (e.g., a ranging procedure onRD-LSDP media link 307 rdx via first RD interconnect channel 361″-1,then a ranging procedure on RD-LSDP media link 307 rdy via second RDinterconnect channel 361″-2, then a ranging procedure on RD-LSDP medialink 307 rdz via third RD interconnect channel 361″-3, then a rangingprocedure on RD-LSDP media link 307 rdx via first RD interconnectchannel 361″-1, then a ranging procedure on RD-LSDP media link 307 rdyvia second RD interconnect channel 361″-2, then a ranging procedure onRD-LSDP media link 307 rdz via third RD interconnect channel 361″-3,etc.). Therefore, each user traffic channel of system 301″ may share aranging channel of system 301″ with a ranging signal of a rangingprocedure that may be time-multiplexed amongst the user trafficchannels. Alternatively, switch 347 and control signal CNTRL may beconfigured to couple RCC 348 to a particular one of the available LSDPcommunication paths at any particular moment in order to RCC 348 tocarry out a ranging procedure on a particular RD-LSDP media link for anyparticular reason. As with RCC 348 of RD 321′ of system 301′ of FIG. 4 ,RCC 348 of RD 321″ of system 301″ may be utilize an RD-LSDP media linkto carry out a ranging procedure with or without any user trafficsimultaneously using that RD-LSDP media link, as the ranging proceduremay be completely transparent to any user traffic capabilities of thecommunication network system.

FIG. 6 shows a portion of an exemplary communication network system301‴, which may be the same as or substantially similar to system 301″of FIG. 5 , except as otherwise noted, for providing an RD with multipleuser traffic channels that may be utilized with a single ranging trafficchannel. The portion of system 301‴ of FIG. 6 may include an exemplaryRD 321‴ that may include (1) an exemplary first RD interconnect channel361‴-1 with an exemplary first user traffic channel 351‴-1 between afirst CD-RD port 323 (e.g., as may be coupled to CD-RD media link 309rda 1) and a first LSDP-RD port 329 of a first optical coupler 365‴-1(e.g., as may be coupled to RD-LSDP media link 307 rdx), (2) anexemplary second RD interconnect channel 361‴-2 with an exemplary seconduser traffic channel 351‴-2 between a second CD-RD port 323 (e.g., asmay be coupled to CD-RD media link 309 rda 2) and a second LSDP-RD port329 of a second optical coupler 365‴-2 (e.g., as may be coupled toRD-LSDP media link 307 rdy), (3) an exemplary third RD interconnectchannel 361‴-3 with an exemplary third user traffic channel 351‴-3between a third CD-RD port 323 (e.g., as may be coupled to CD-RD medialink 309 rdb) and a third LSDP-RD port 329 of a third optical coupler365‴-3 (e.g., as may be coupled to RD-LSDP media link 307 rdz), and (4)a ranging traffic channel 341‴ that may be shared by each one of RDinterconnect channels 361‴-1, 361‴-2, and 361‴-3. As shown, in someembodiments, each one of user traffic channels 351‴-1, 351‴-2, and351‴-3 of FIG. 6 may be the same as user traffic channel 351′ of FIG. 4, where any suitable interface module 325 (e.g., SFP) may be provided byeach user traffic channel of RD 321‴ at the user traffic channel’s CD-RDport 323 for translating any optical data received by RD 321‴ at aparticular CD-RD media link 309 rd into electrical data for use by theuser traffic channel and/or for translating any electrical data providedby the user traffic channel into optical data for transmission onto theparticular CD-RD media link 309 rd. Each one of user traffic channels351‴-1, 351‴-2, and 351‴-3 of RD 321‴ may also include any suitable pinsets, SerDes, additional interface module (e.g., SFP), and DMcomponent(s) (e.g., as described with respect to user traffic channel351′ of FIG. 4 ). As described with respect to DM component 358 of RD321′ and each DM component of RD 321″, each DM component of each one ofuser traffic channels 351‴-1, 351‴-2, and 351‴-3 of RD 321‴ may beoperative to add any suitable delay or latency to the electrical databeing communicated therethrough. Such delay of each DM may be dictatedindependently from that of each of the other DMs of the other usertraffic channels of RD 321‴ by any suitable control link data that maybe received at the DM via a control link data input port via anysuitable control link data communicative coupling 353 c using anysuitable communication protocol from any suitable processing module 312of system 301‴. Each one of user traffic channels 351‴-1, 351‴-2, and351‴-3 of RD 321‴ may also include an optical coupler 365‴ (e.g., arespective one of couplers 365‴-1, 365‴-2, and 365‴-3), such as anoptical multiplexer (e.g., a 2-to-1 multiplexer and a 1-to-2demultiplexer), where an LSDP-RD port 329 of each user traffic channelof RD 321‴ may be provided by the “combined” port of a respectiveoptical coupler 365‴, and where each optical coupler 365‴ of RD 321‴ mayalso include a first “separated” port (e.g., port 363 of coupler 365 ofFIG. 4 ) of the two separated ports of the coupler and may be associatedwith the coupler’s associated user traffic channel 351‴, and a second“separated” port (e.g., port 367 of coupler 365 of FIG. 4 ) of the twoseparated ports of the coupler and may be associated with shared rangingtraffic channel 341‴. As described with respect to interface module orSFP 326 of RD 321′, each additional or right side SFP component of eachone of user traffic channels 351‴-1, 351‴-2, and 351‴-3 of RD 321‴ maybe provided by RD 321‴ at a first separated optical port of theparticular channel’s coupler 365‴ for translating any optical datareceived by that first separated optical port from the LSDP-RD port 329of the particular channel’s coupler 365‴ and associated RD-LSDP medialink 307 rd into electrical data for use by the particular user trafficchannel 351‴ and/or for translating any electrical data provided by theparticular user traffic channel 351‴ into optical data for transmissionby the first separated optical port of the particular channel’s coupler365‴ onto LSDP-RD port 329 of the particular channel’s coupler 365‴ andassociated RD-LSDP media link 307 rd.

As shown, like ranging traffic channel 341′ of RD 321′ of FIG. 4 ,ranging traffic channel 341‴ of RD 321‴ of FIG. 6 may include an RCC348, SerDes 344, pin set 342, and any suitable interface module (e.g.,SFP). However, unlike in ranging traffic channel 341′ of RD 321′ of FIG.4 where its interface module 346 (e.g., SFP) may be provided at secondseparated optical port 367 of coupler 365 for translating any opticaldata received by second separated optical port 367 from the coupler’sLSDP-RD port 329 and RD-LSDP media link 307 rd into electrical data foruse by ranging traffic channel 341′ and/or for translating anyelectrical data provided by ranging traffic channel 341′ into opticaldata for transmission by second separated optical port 367 of coupler365 onto the coupler’s LSDP-RD port 329 and RD-LSDP media link 307 rd,such an interface module of ranging traffic channel 341‴ of RD 321‴ ofFIG. 6 may be any suitable tunable interface module 346‴ (e.g., anysuitable tunable optical transceiver (e.g., for dense wavelengthdivision multiplexer (“DWDM”) systems), such as a tunable SFP) that maybe coupled to the second separated optical port of each one of the RDinterconnect channel couplers 365‴-1, 365‴-2, and 365‴-3 via anysuitable multiplexer 345 (e.g., any suitable passive wavelength divisionmultiplexer). As shown, multiplexer 345 may be any suitable multiplexerthat may be operative to communicatively couple interface module 346‴ ofranging traffic channel 341‴ to N LSDP communication paths 349‴, such as(1) a first LSDP communication path 349‴-1 that may communicativelycouple multiplexer 345 (and, thus, SFP 346‴) to the second separatedoptical port of coupler 365‴-1 of first RD interconnect channel 361‴-1(e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341‴ is utilized with first usertraffic channel 351‴-1), (2) a second LSDP communication path 349‴-2that may communicatively couple multiplexer 345 (and, thus, SFP 346‴) tothe second separated optical port of coupler 365‴-2 of second RDinterconnect channel 361‴-2 (e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341‴ isutilized with second user traffic channel 351‴-2), and (3) a third LSDPcommunication path 349‴-3 that may communicatively couple multiplexer345 (and, thus, SFP 346‴) to the second separated optical port ofcoupler 365‴-3 of third RD interconnect channel 361‴-3 (e.g., whenranging traffic channel 341‴ is utilized with third user traffic channel351‴-3). Tunable optical transceiver or tunable SFP 346‴ may be similarin operation to a fixed SFP (e.g., SFP 346 of FIGS. 4 and 5 ), howevertunable SFP 346‴ may have the added capability of enabling an operatoror otherwise to set a channel of (or color) of an emitting laser, whichmay support any suitable channels (e.g., 88 channels that may be setwith a 0.4 nm interval, although only 3 channels may be shown asutilized in FIG. 6 , N-channels, such as 16 or 61 or any other suitablenumber could be used). Any suitable control signal CNTRL may be utilizedto control the wavelength or frequency of the optical data communicatedby tunable SFP 346‴. For example, control signal CNTRL may be controlledby processing component 348 m of RCC 348 or any other suitableprocessing component or controller of any suitable computing device 339of RD 321‴ (e.g., an FPGA) and/or processing module 312 of system 301‴.While the ranging signal transmitted by RCC 348 of RD 321″ of FIG. 5 ascommunicated via SFP 346 as an optical signal may be configured to havethe same wavelength regardless of which LSDP communication path 349″ itis to be communicated through or has been communicated from, the rangingsignal transmitted by RCC 348 of RD 321‴ of FIG. 6 as communicated viaSFP 346‴ as an optical signal may be configured to have a differentwavelength depending on which LSDP communication path 349‴ it is to becommunicated through or has been communicated from (e.g., based on atuning of SFP 346‴). In some embodiments, interface module 346‴ may betuned to address a single one of N LSDP communication paths 349‴ at atime, each with a ranging signal at a different wavelength, whereby theLSDP to handle the ranging signal may be configured to handle thatspecific wavelength in particular or to handle all possible rangingsignal wavelengths generally while still properly also handling thewavelength(s) of all user traffic. For example, tuning of interfacemodule 346‴ may be operative to transmit a ranging signal at a selectedwavelength as an optical ranging signal that may be passed tomultiplexer 345 (e.g., passive wavelength division demultiplexer) thatmay be operative to direct the optical signal to one and only one of theoutput fibers (e.g., LSDP communication path 349‴-1 for a ranging signalat a first wavelength along RD-LDSP media links 307 rdx to LSDP 381 x,LSDP communication path 349‴-2 for a ranging signal at a secondwavelength along RD-LDSP media links 307 rdy to LSDP 381 y, or LSDPcommunication path 349‴-3 for a ranging signal at a third wavelengthalong RD-LDSP media links 307 rdz to LSDP 381 z). Each LSDP may beoperative to return signals of all possible wavelengths for a rangingsignal back to multiplexer 345. Once a fiber may be selected by channel341‴ (e.g., by a tunable SFP and WDM demux), the RCC may be operative tosend and receive on one of the selected output fibers. For example, anoptical combiner 386 of an LSDP may be operative to return a singlewavelength ranging signal in the case of the optical switch RD (e.g.,FIG. 5 ) or multiple wavelength ranging signals in the case of a WDM RD(e.g., FIG. 6 ).

Like ranging traffic channel 341′ of RD 321′ of FIG. 4 , ranging trafficchannel 341‴ of RD 321‴ of FIG. 6 may utilize RCC 348 to carry out aranging procedure of transmitting and later receiving a ranging signalfor enabling determination of a latency of an RD-LDSP media link 307 rdcommunicatively coupled to RCC 348. However, unlike RCC 348 of rangingtraffic channel 341′ of RD 321′ of FIG. 4 that may be used fordetermining the latency of just one RD-LDSP media link 307 rdcommunicatively coupled to just one user traffic channel 351′, RCC 348of ranging traffic channel 341‴ of RD 321‴ of FIG. 6 may be used fordetermining the latency of one, some, or each one of various RD-LDSPmedia links 307 rd, such as RD-LDSP media links 307 rdx, 307 rdy, and307 rdz, that may be communicatively coupled to various respective usertraffic channels 351‴, such as user traffic channel 351‴-1, user trafficchannel 351‴-2, and user traffic channel 351‴-3, through the use oftunable interface module 346‴ and control signal CNTRL and multiplexer345 and one or more ranging procedures (e.g., in a constantly cycling orperiodic or simultaneous or direct approach). As with RCC 348 of RD 321′of system 301′ of FIG. 4 and RCC 348 of RD 321″ of system 301″ of FIG. 5, RCC 348 of RD 321‴ of system 301‴ may be utilize an RD-LSDP media linkto carry out a ranging procedure with or without any user trafficsimultaneously using that RD-LSDP media link, as the ranging proceduremay be completely transparent to any user traffic capabilities of thecommunication network system.

FIG. 3A shows a portion of an exemplary communication network system 301a, which may be the same as or substantially similar to system 301 ofFIG. 3 , except as otherwise noted, for providing a BitSpooler with anRD and two LSDPs along an interconnect between two user communicationdevices. For example, as shown in FIG. 3A, an RD 321 a of a Bitspooler399 a may include six LSDP-RD ports 329 rather than three LSDP-RD ports329 and three CD-RD ports 323 of RD 321 of FIG. 3 . Moreover, BitSpooler399 a may include six LSDPs 381 a 1, 381 a 2, 381 b, 381 x, 381 y, and381 z, rather than just the three latter ones of BitSpooler 399 of FIG.3 . Therefore, while the right side of system 301 a of FIG. 3A may beshown as similar to system 301 of FIG. 3 , the left side of system 301 amay instead include a first path from a first node of device 302 to afirst LSDP-RD port 329 via CD-LSDP media link 309 lpa 1, LSDP 381 a 1,and a RD-LSDP media link 307 rda 1, a second path from a second node ofdevice 302 to a second LSDP-RD port 329 via CD-LSDP media link 309 lpa2, LSDP 381 a 2, and a RD-LSDP media link 307 rda 2, and a third pathfrom a node of device 304 to a third LSDP-RD port 329 via CD-LSDP medialink 309 lpb, LSDP 381 b, and a RD-LSDP media link 307 rdb. This type ofBitSpooler 399 a and other system connections of system 301 a of FIG. 3Amay be utilized rather than the type of BitSpooler 399 and other systemconnections of system 301 of FIG. 3 when desired to couple LSDPs to oradjacent each user communication device rather than coupling a rangingdevice to or adjacent one or more user communication devices.

RD 321 a may work similarly to RD 321 of FIG. 3 , RD 321′ of FIG. 4 , RD321″ of FIG. 5 , and/or RD 321‴ of FIG. 6 , except that twice as manyRD-LSDP media links 307 rd may have to be ranged for determining theirnative latencies. For example, although not shown, RD 321 a may beprovided with six distinct ranging traffic channels (e.g., six distinctRCC’s, etc.), one for each LSDP-RD port 329 (e.g., similar to theconcept described with respect to FIG. 4 ). Alternatively, RD 321 a mayinclude one or more shared ranging traffic channels.

For example, FIG. 10 shows a portion of an exemplary communicationnetwork 301a″ that may be similar to system 301 a of FIG. 3A but with anRD 321 a″, which may be similar to RD 321″ of FIG. 5 but showing thethree additional LSDP-RD ports 329, where each of the six LSDP-RD ports329 are in one of couplers 365 a 1, 365 a 2, 365 b, 365 x, 365 y, and365 z, with a first user traffic channel 351″-1 of a first RDinterconnect channel 361″-1 extending between couplers 365 a 1 and 365x, a second user traffic channel 351″-2 of a second RD interconnectchannel 361″-2 extending between couplers 365 a 2 and 365 y, and a thirduser traffic channel 351″-3 of a third RD interconnect channel 361″-3extending between couplers 365 b and 365 z. A shared ranging trafficchannel 341 a″ of RD 321 a″ of FIG. 10 may be similar to ranging trafficchannel 341″ of RD 321″ of FIG. 5 , except, rather than includingoptical switch 347 with only N LSDP communication paths 349″ (e.g., 3 asshown in FIG. 5 ), shared ranging traffic channel 341 a″ may include anoptical switch 347 a with N+N LSDP communication paths 349″ (e.g., 6 asshown in FIG. 10 ). For example, as shown in FIG. 10 , optical switch347 a may be any suitable switch that may be operative tocommunicatively couple interface module (e.g., SFP) 346 of rangingtraffic channel 341 a″ selectively to one of N+N LSDP communicationpaths 349 a″, such as selectively to one of (1) a first LSDPcommunication path 349 a″-1 that may communicatively couple switch 347 a(and, thus, selectively SFP 346) to the second separated optical port ofcoupler 365 x of first RD interconnect channel 361″-1 (e.g., whenranging traffic channel 341 a″ is to be utilized with a first RD-LSDPmedia link 307 rdx of first user traffic channel 351 a″-1), (2) a secondLSDP communication path 349 a″-2 that may communicatively couple switch347 a (and, thus, selectively SFP 346) to the second separated opticalport of coupler 365 y of second RD interconnect channel 361″-2 (e.g.,when ranging traffic channel 341 a″ is to be utilized with a firstRD-LSDP media link 307 rdy of second user traffic channel 351 a″-2), (3)a third LSDP communication path 349 a″-3 that may communicatively coupleswitch 347 a (and, thus, selectively SFP 346) to the second separatedoptical port of coupler 365 z of third RD interconnect channel 361″-3(e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341 a″ is to be utilized with afirst RD-LSDP media link 307 rdz of third traffic channel 351 a″-3), (4)a fourth LSDP communication path 349 a″-4 that may communicativelycouple switch 347 a (and, thus, selectively SFP 346) to the secondseparated optical port of coupler 365 a 1 of first RD interconnectchannel 361″-1 (e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341 a″ is to beutilized with a second RD-LSDP media link 307 rda 1 of first usertraffic channel 351 a″-1), (5) a fifth LSDP communication path 349 a″-5that may communicatively couple switch 347 a (and, thus, selectively SFP346) to the second separated optical port of coupler 365 a 2 of secondRD interconnect channel 361″-2 (e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341a″ is to be utilized with a second RD-LSDP media link 307 rda 2 ofsecond user traffic channel 351 a″-2), and (6) a sixth LSDPcommunication path 349 a″-6 that may communicatively couple switch 347 a(and, thus, selectively SFP 346) to the second separated optical port ofcoupler 365 b of third RD interconnect channel 361″-3 (e.g., whenranging traffic channel 341 a″ is to be utilized with a second RD-LSDPmedia link 307 rdb of third traffic channel 351 a″-3).

As another example, FIG. 11 shows a portion of an exemplarycommunication network 301a‴ that may be similar to system 301 a of FIG.3A but with an RD 321 a‴, which may be similar to RD 321‴ of FIG. 6 butshowing the three additional LSDP-RD ports 329, where each of the sixLSDP-RD ports 329 are in one of couplers 365 a 1, 365 a 2, 365 b, 365 x,365 y, and 365 z, with a first user traffic channel 351‴-1 of a first RDinterconnect channel 361‴-1 extending between couplers 365 a 1 and 365x, a second user traffic channel 351‴-2 of a second RD interconnectchannel 361‴-2 extending between couplers 365 a 2 and 365 y, and a thirduser traffic channel 351‴-3 of a third RD interconnect channel 361‴-3extending between couplers 365 b and 365 z. A shared ranging trafficchannel 341 a‴ of RD 321 a‴ of FIG. 11 may be similar to ranging trafficchannel 341‴ of RD 321‴ of FIG. 6 , except, rather than includingmultiplexer 345 with only N LSDP communication paths 349″ (e.g., 3 asshown in FIG. 6 ), shared ranging traffic channel 341 a‴ may include amultiplexer 345 a with N+N LSDP communication paths 349‴ (e.g., 6 asshown in FIG. 11 ). For example, as shown in FIG. 11 , multiplexer 345 amay be any suitable component that may be operative to communicativelycouple interface module (e.g., tunable SFP) 346 a‴ of ranging trafficchannel 341 a‴ to N+N LSDP communication paths 349 a‴, such asselectively to (1) a first LSDP communication path 349 a‴-1 that maycommunicatively couple SFP 346 a‴ to the second separated optical portof coupler 365 x of first RD interconnect channel 361‴-1 (e.g., whenranging traffic channel 341 a‴ is to be utilized with a first RD-LSDPmedia link 307 rdx of first user traffic channel 351 a‴-1), (2) a secondLSDP communication path 349 a‴-2 that may communicatively couple SFP 346a‴ to the second separated optical port of coupler 365 y of second RDinterconnect channel 361‴-2 (e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341 a‴is to be utilized with a first RD-LSDP media link 307 rdy of second usertraffic channel 351 a‴-2), (3) a third LSDP communication path 349 a‴-3that may communicatively couple SFP 346 a‴ to the second separatedoptical port of coupler 365 z of third RD interconnect channel 361‴-3(e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341 a‴ is to be utilized with afirst RD-LSDP media link 307 rdz of third traffic channel 351 a‴-3), (4)a fourth LSDP communication path 349 a‴-4 that may communicativelycouple SFP 346 a‴ to the second separated optical port of coupler 365 a1 of first RD interconnect channel 361‴-1 (e.g., when ranging trafficchannel 341 a‴ is to be utilized with a second RD-LSDP media link 307rda 1 of first user traffic channel 351 a‴-1), (5) a fifth LSDPcommunication path 349 a‴-5 that may communicatively couple SFP 346 a‴to the second separated optical port of coupler 365 a 2 of second RDinterconnect channel 361‴-2 (e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341 a‴is to be utilized with a second RD-LSDP media link 307 rda 2 of seconduser traffic channel 351 a‴-2), and (6) a sixth LSDP communication path349 a‴-6 that may communicatively couple SFP 346 a‴ to the secondseparated optical port of coupler 365 b of third RD interconnect channel361‴-3 (e.g., when ranging traffic channel 341 a‴ is to be utilized witha second RD-LSDP media link 307 rdb of third traffic channel 351 a‴-3).

When there are twice as many LSDPs, there may also be twice as manyRD-LSDP media links 307 to range. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 , a singleshared ranging traffic channel (e.g., a single RCC) may or may not beable to handle all of the ranging. Instead, in some embodiments (notshown), a first RCC’s ranging traffic channel may range a first amountof the RD-LSDP media links, while a second RCC’s ranging traffic channelmay range a second amount of the RD-LSDP media links (e.g., at the sametime as the first RCC’s ranging traffic channel may range the firstamount of the RD-LSDP media links (e.g., in parallel)). All determinednative latencies may be received and handled by the same processingmodule (e.g., a module 312) for determining how to adjust the latencyadded to one or more of the user traffic channels of the system orotherwise to manage one or more system parameters or securityconsiderations of the system. Additionally or alternatively, althoughnot shown, it is to be understood that a communication network systemmay include two or more BitSpoolers (e.g., two or more RD’s), while alldetermined native latencies of all RD-LSDP media links of all of theBitSpoolers may be received and handled by the same processing module(e.g., a module 312) for determining how to adjust the latency added toone or more of the user traffic channels of the system or otherwise tomanage one or more system parameters or security considerations of thesystem. Although not shown, it is also to be understood that aBitSpooler may enable a communication link between any two usercommunication devices of a communication network system to include onlya single LSDP (e.g., like each of the communication links of FIG. 3 )while that same BitSpooler may enable another communication link betweenany two user communication devices of that same communication networksystem to include two LSDPs (e.g., like each of the communication linksof FIG. 3A).

As shown by each user traffic channel 351 a″ of FIG. 10 , each usertraffic channel 351 a‴ of FIG. 11 , and also by a portion of a usertraffic channel 351⁗-n of FIG. 8 , it is to be understood that a usertraffic channel may include two DMs 358. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, a first DM 358-1 of a particular user traffic channel for enablinguser traffic data to be communicated between two particular end usercommunication devices may be operative to add any suitable delay orlatency to the electrical data being communicated therethrough fromSerDes 354 l to SerDes 354 r (e.g., based on any suitable first controllink data that may be received at a control link data input port 353-n 1of DM 358-1 or otherwise via any suitable control link datacommunicative coupling 353 cn 1 using any suitable communicationprotocol from any suitable processing module of the communicationnetwork system), while a second DM 358-2 of that same particular usertraffic channel for enabling user traffic data to be communicatedbetween those same two particular end user communication devices but inthe opposite direction may be operative to add any suitable delay orlatency to the electrical data being communicated therethrough fromSerDes 354 r to SerDes 354 l (e.g., based on any suitable second controllink data that may be received at a control link data input port 353-n 2of DM 358-2 or otherwise via any suitable control link datacommunicative coupling 353 cn 2 using any suitable communicationprotocol from any suitable processing module of the communicationnetwork system). In some embodiments, the same delay or latency (if any)may be added by each one of the DMs of the user traffic channel.However, in other embodiments, a different delay or latency may be addedby different DMs of the user traffic channel. In some embodiments,different DMs of a particular user traffic channel may be operative toapply different latencies (e.g., a delay applied by DM 358-1 may begreater than a delay applied by DM 358-2 if it is determined to have thelatency of user traffic communicated from device 302 to device 306 to begreater than the latency of user traffic communicated from device 306 todevice 302). Moreover, applying different latencies to differentdirections of traffic flow through a user traffic channel of an RD mayenable different types of equalization and/or other traffic shaping. Forexample, in an embodiment where each user traffic channel is to beequalized, a first DM 358-1 of each user traffic channel may beconfigured with a certain respective delay such that the latency forsending data from the RD to any user device to the right of the RD maybe equalized with one another (e.g., to equalize CD-LSDP media links 309lpx, 309 lpy, and 309 lpz), while a second DM 358-2 of each user trafficchannel may be configured with a certain respective delay such that thelatency for sending data from the RD to any user devices to the left ofthe RD may be equalized with one another (e.g., to equalize CD-LSDPmedia links 309 lpa 1, 309 lpa 2, and 309 lpb).

As mentioned, one or more RDs of one or more BitSpoolers communicativelycoupling two or more pairs of end user communication devices of acommunication network may be operative to determine the native latencyof one, some, or each variable or adjustable or unknown or uncontrolledmedia link (e.g., RD-LSDP media link) of the communication network andany suitable processing or controller module(s) may be configured toaccess and utilize one or more of such determined latencies to managethe communication network in one or more suitable ways (e.g., forprogrammatically adjusting the delay of any RD-LSDP media link based onany suitable data (e.g., in accordance with any suitable policies (e.g.,user-defined policies) on a per-link basis) or for otherwisedeterministically and/or dynamically shaping traffic of thecommunication network and/or monitoring the health of the communicationnetwork based on any suitable data (e.g., in accordance with anysuitable policies (e.g., user-defined policies) on a per-link basis),such as determining if a link becomes significantly slower than usual oris cut-off or not useful and then reporting such a determinationimmediately to an operator or other entity with an interest in thenetwork (e.g., via an I/O component of the processing module orotherwise) (e.g., using a simple network management protocol (“SNMP”)).In some embodiments, all delays of user traffic channels can bestandardized to be equal or greater than the longest individual nativedelay. By holding some or all data packets for as long as necessary toestablish standardized time-of-flight among them, they may be able to bereceived at the same time. A BitSpooler may be placed between the twoend devices (one or more of which may have an LSDP coupledproximate/adjacent thereto in a controlled manner and can add variousdelays, zero or greater to one or more paths between an LSDP and an RDof the BitSpooler. Regardless of the original fiber delay on any givenfiber, the BitSpooler may be configured to adapt so that all data can bedelivered at the same time. This delay can be adjusted to the longestfiber of any length, or it can be set to a standardized system latency.In other embodiments (e.g., for more complicated scenarios), traffic canbe shaped either by smoothing, by intentionally introducing burstiness,or by adding controlled jitter to one, some, or each path. Variousconfigurable elements of such a BitSpooler communication network systemmay include, but are not limited to, standardized latency for a group oflinks, network operator policy configurations, including, but notlimited to, threshold(s) for alarms and alerts due to changes, time-outfor a link, maximum packet size allowed to be sent, maximum throughputallowed for a link or otherwise, and/or the like.

One or more RDs and any suitable processing modules of a communicationnetwork system may be configured to monitor (e.g., including trackingall configurable elements) and report (e.g., to a network operator(e.g., via any suitable external link)) on the any suitable behavioralcharacteristics, including, but not limited to, a measured latency ofone, some, or each fiber connected to a port, total latency of eachcross connect (e.g., if an LSDP on each side of an RD for a givencommunication device node to communication device node path), deltabetween the total latency and the standardized latency, delay added perlink, variance between the largest and smallest latency numberpost-standardization (e.g., there may be inherent jitter in anymeasurement, and the system may be operative to store both the largestand smallest values and potentially monitor if the delta ever exceeds acertain threshold (e.g., a 10 ns delta) and alert an operator if so),up-time on a per port basis (e.g., counters may be maintained that maymonitor how long each link remains locked or times out such that it maybe determined that a link is not healthy), alarms may be utilized if achange in measured latency relative to a baseline measurement on aper-port basis occurs (e.g., for security reasons) and/or if there is adrop in a link or drop in measured light levels on a per port basis, orsystem uptime and key performance indicators may be detected, such asoperating temperature, individual port metrics (e.g., temperature, lightlevels, data rate, Bit Error Rate), system level issues (e.g., powersupply failure, etc.), and/or the like. For example, any suitablesensor, such as sensor 15 of device 120, may be provided by an RD andused to determine any suitable characteristic(s) about the RD or anycomponent(s) thereof, including the temperature of the RD, which mayoverheat due to the powering of the active device (e.g., by including atemperature sensor in a chassis in which the RD or a portion thereof maybe housed). Any suitable temperature(s) of the RD may therefore bedetected and used for any suitable purpose (e.g., to report anypotential problem to an operator for further inspection).

In order to enable piecemeal network upgrade, a BitSpooler can be addedto a network in a piecemeal fashion because neither an RD or an LSDPpiece by itself materially affects the network. For instance, replacinga regular patch panel with an LSDP patch panel may be completelytransparent to a network operator. The user traffic may pass through theLSDP just as it did with the original patch panel. Also, simplyinserting an RD into a network may add very little latency to any paththerethrough (e.g., approximately 50 ns of delay (e.g., equivalent toapproximately 3 feet of fiber-optic cable) or less. It is precisely thisability that may be critical to any large-scale network upgrade becauseit can allow a methodical retrofit with minimal risk to ongoingoperations. Then, such a BitSpooler can be enabled on a per-link basis(e.g., latency may be controlled on a per-link basis (e.g., on a peruser traffic channel data direction basis)). Again, this can allow for amethodical and controlled transition with minimal risks, and with theability to quickly isolate any problematic links.

SNR on optical links may be maintained. A BitSpooler’s RD may beoperative to regenerate an optical signal. In other words, an RD mayreceive an optical signal, convert it to an electrical signal, and thenconvert it back to an optical signal. As a result, the RD may notintroduce loss into the path.

Additional network security may be enabled by systems of thisdisclosure. Many common communication networks may largely operate on aprinciple of trust because network operators cannot detect cablechanges. For instance, if a cable between two nodes is replaced by oneof a different length, there is often no way to detect it. On the otherhand, because a BitSpooler may be configured to continuously monitor thelatencies on the cables that are attached to it, it can be used todetect changes in a network, and to notify the network operator. Beyondgenerally detecting and controlling the latency of a communication link,a BitSpooler system may also be enabled to carry out any other suitabledeterministic dynamic traffic shaping. For example, a BitSpooler may beenabled to smooth out bursty traffic or to add burstiness to a channel(e.g., by selectively adding different latency between different datapackets at certain intervals (e.g., rather than adding a certain amountof delay to each user data packet, different amounts of delay may beadded between different packets (e.g., 1 millisecond delay after every10 data packets vs, 0.1 millisecond delay after every data packet,etc.))). Therefore, a delay module may be used to programmably add delayafter any suitable number of packets or in any suitable pattern (e.g., Fdelay after ten packets, then G delay after next 5 packets, then H delayafter next 5 packets, then F delay after next 10 packets, etc., where F,G, and H may be different durations of delay). In some embodiments,jitter or randomness may be added to one, some, or each link for anysuitable purpose.

While various types of passive ranging have been described, activeranging may be accomplished via a frame or packet based “signal” byutilizing any suitable protocol, or a proprietary Layer 2 or Layer 3protocol. For that case, an LSDP may be either implemented in hardware,software, or some combination of the two A ranging function mayestablish the latency of each connected device via a wide area network(“WAN”) and continuously monitor the delta between the session and thestandardized latency. In this way, changes in latency of any remoteconnection that may be caused by changes in the network such as openshortest path first (“OSPF”) routing protocol, congestion, or otherfactors may be accommodated. An RD may be configured to measures thelatency of a physical media optically to the LSDP. The delay over widearea networks can be measured with industry standard methods, such asinternet control message protocol (“ICMP”) and precision time protocol(“PTP”), that may use any suitable combination of hardware and software.The delay function can be used independently of the LSDP for anyrequired delay (e.g., with sufficient RAM storage). Reordering trafficmay utilize storage and processing that may be more complex than asimple delay.

Although only five communication devices (e.g., devices 102, 104, 106,108, and 110) and three distinct interconnects (e.g., device 102 todevice 106, device 102 to device 108, and device 106 to device 110) maybe shown in various embodiments of the disclosure, it is to beunderstood that any suitable number of servers, with any suitable numberof interface modules, may be handled by one or more BitSpoolers in asystem for enabling any suitable number of distinct interconnects. Oneor more user traffic channels may have its ranging turned on or off.Some channels of an RD may not include any electronic circuitry but maysimply pass through optically. In some embodiments (not shown), an RDmay include a safety bypass that may be optical for optically couplingtwo appropriate LSDP-RD ports 329 of a user traffic channel or anappropriate CD-RD ports 323 and a LSDP-RD port 329 of a user trafficchannel (e.g., as a precaution for power failure of the RD). Somechannels may not include any LSDPs, even though BitSpooler does notimpact signal integrity (e.g., path from device 104 to device 110 maynot include any LSDPs (not shown) and may not be ranged, but may stillbe shaped by an RD along the path.

One, some, or all of the processes described with respect to FIGS. 1-11may each be implemented by software, but may also be implemented inhardware, firmware, or any combination of software, hardware, andfirmware. Instructions for performing these processes may also beembodied as machine- or computer-readable code recorded on a machine- orcomputer-readable medium. In some embodiments, the computer-readablemedium may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Examples ofsuch a non-transitory computer-readable medium include but are notlimited to a read-only memory, a random-access memory, a flash memory, aCD-ROM, a DVD, a magnetic tape, a removable memory card, and a datastorage device (e.g., memory 13 of a network device 120). In otherembodiments, the computer-readable medium may be a transitorycomputer-readable medium. In such embodiments, the transitorycomputer-readable medium can be distributed over network-coupledcomputer systems so that the computer-readable code is stored andexecuted in a distributed fashion. For example, such a transitorycomputer-readable medium may be communicated from a central networkcontroller device to a router device or from a data device to anynetwork device. Such a transitory computer-readable medium may embodycomputer-readable code, instructions, data structures, program modules,or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave orother transport mechanism, and may include any information deliverymedia. A modulated data signal may be a signal that has one or more ofits characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encodeinformation in the signal.

Any, each, or at least one module or component or subsystem of thedisclosure may be provided as a software construct, firmware construct,one or more hardware components, or a combination thereof. For example,any, each, or at least one module or component or subsystem of system 1may be described in the general context of computer-executableinstructions, such as program modules, that may be executed by one ormore computers or other devices. Generally, a program module may includeone or more routines, programs, objects, components, and/or datastructures that may perform one or more particular tasks or that mayimplement one or more particular abstract data types. The number,configuration, functionality, and interconnection of the modules andcomponents and subsystems of system 1 are only illustrative, and thatthe number, configuration, functionality, and interconnection ofexisting modules, components, and/or subsystems may be modified oromitted, additional modules, components, and/or subsystems may be added,and the interconnection of certain modules, components, and/orsubsystems may be altered.

While there have been described systems, methods, and computer-readablemedia for providing deterministic dynamic traffic shaping forcommunication networks, many changes may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the subject matter describedherein in any way. Insubstantial changes from the claimed subject matteras viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or laterdevised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalently within thescope of the claims. Therefore, obvious substitutions now or later knownto one with ordinary skill in the art are defined to be within the scopeof the defined elements.

Therefore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the concepts ofthe disclosure can be practiced by other than the described embodiments,which are presented for purposes of illustration rather than oflimitation.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A method for controlling a communication networkcomprising a plurality of network communication nodes, a plurality ofmedia links, a first active ranging device, and a first passive opticalcoupler device, the method comprising: communicating user trafficbetween a first communication network node of the plurality of networkcommunication nodes and a second communication network node of theplurality of network communication nodes via a first user traffic paththat comprises: a first media link of the plurality of media linksextending between the first communication network node and a firstranging device (“RD”) port of the first active ranging device; a firstuser traffic channel of the first active ranging device thatcommunicatively couples the first RD port of the first active rangingdevice to a second RD port of the first active ranging device; a secondmedia link of the plurality of media links extending between the secondRD port of the first active ranging device and a first optical coupler(“OC”) port of the first passive optical coupler device; a first opticalcoupler of the first passive optical coupler device that communicativelycouples the first OC port of the first passive optical coupler device toa second OC port of the first passive optical coupler device; and athird media link of the plurality of media links extending between thesecond OC port of the first passive optical coupler device and thesecond communication network node of the plurality of networkcommunication nodes; and simultaneously with the communicating the usertraffic between the first communication network node of the plurality ofnetwork communication nodes and the second communication network node ofthe plurality of network communication nodes via the first user trafficpath, communicating ranging traffic via a first ranging traffic paththat comprises: a first ranging traffic channel of the first activeranging device that communicatively couples a first ranging channelcalculator (“RCC”) of the first active ranging device to the second RDport of the first active ranging device; the second media link of theplurality of media links extending between the second RD port of thefirst active ranging device and the first OC port of the first passiveoptical coupler device; and the first optical coupler of the firstpassive optical coupler device.
 22. The method of claim 21, wherein thecommunicating the user traffic comprises communicating the user trafficvia the second media link at the same time as the communicating theranging traffic comprises communicating the ranging traffic via thesecond media link.
 23. The method of claim 21, wherein the first opticalcoupler comprises: a first optical splitter; and a first opticalcombiner.
 24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first ranging trafficpath comprises the first optical splitter and the first opticalcombiner.
 25. The method of claim 24, wherein the first user trafficpath comprises at least one of the first optical splitter or the firstoptical combiner.
 26. The method of claim 24, wherein the first usertraffic path comprises the first optical splitter.
 27. The method ofclaim 24, wherein the first user traffic path comprises the firstoptical combiner.
 28. The method of claim 23, wherein the first usertraffic path comprises at least one of the first optical splitter or thefirst optical combiner.
 29. The method of claim 23, further comprising:splitting, using the first optical splitter, first output RD datareceived by the first OC port into first RD user traffic data for thesecond OC port and first output ranging signal traffic data for thefirst optical combiner; and combining, using the first optical combiner,the first output ranging signal traffic data from the first opticalsplitter and end user traffic data from the second OC port into firstinput RD data for the first OC port.
 30. The method of claim 29, furthercomprising combining the first output ranging signal traffic data fromthe first RCC and the first RD user traffic data from the first usertraffic channel into the first output RD data for the second RD port.31. The method of claim 30, wherein the combining uses awavelength-division multiplexer of the first active ranging device. 32.The system of claim 29, further comprising splitting the first input RDdata received by the first RD port into first input ranging signaltraffic data for the first RCC and second RD user traffic data for thefirst user traffic channel.
 33. The method of claim 32, wherein thesplitting uses a wavelength-division multiplexer of the first activeranging device.
 34. The method of claim 32, further comprising combiningthe first output ranging signal traffic data from the first RCC and thefirst RD user traffic data from the first user traffic channel into thefirst output RD data for the second RD port.
 35. The method of claim 34,wherein the splitting uses a wavelength-division multiplexer of thefirst active ranging device.
 36. The method of claim 35, wherein thecombining uses the wavelength-division multiplexer of the first activeranging device.
 37. A method for controlling a communication networkcomprising a plurality of network communication nodes, a plurality ofmedia links, an active ranging device, a first passive optical couplerdevice, and a second passive optical coupler device, the methodcomprising: communicating first user traffic between a firstcommunication network node of the plurality of network communicationnodes and a second communication network node of the plurality ofnetwork communication nodes via a first user traffic path thatcomprises: a first media link of the plurality of media links extendingbetween the first communication network node and a first ranging device(“RD”) port of the active ranging device; a first user traffic channelof the active ranging device that communicatively couples the first RDport of the active ranging device to a second RD port of the activeranging device; a second media link of the plurality of media linksextending between the second RD port of the active ranging device and afirst optical coupler (“OC”) port of the first passive optical couplerdevice; an optical coupler of the first passive optical coupler devicethat communicatively couples the first OC port of the first passiveoptical coupler device to a second OC port of the first passive opticalcoupler device; and a third media link of the plurality of media linksextending between the second OC port of the first passive opticalcoupler device and the second communication network node of theplurality of network communication nodes; communicating second usertraffic between a third communication network node of the plurality ofnetwork communication nodes and a fourth communication network node ofthe plurality of network communication nodes via a second user trafficpath that comprises: a fourth media link of the plurality of media linksextending between the third communication network node and a third RDport of the active ranging device; a second user traffic channel of theactive ranging device that communicatively couples the third RD port ofthe active ranging device to a fourth RD port of the active rangingdevice; a fifth media link of the plurality of media links extendingbetween the fourth RD port of the active ranging device and a first OCport of the second passive optical coupler device; an optical coupler ofthe second passive optical coupler device that communicatively couplesthe first OC port of the second passive optical coupler device to asecond OC port of the second passive optical coupler device; and a sixthmedia link of the plurality of media links extending between the secondOC port of the second passive optical coupler device and the fourthcommunication network node of the plurality of network communicationnodes; and simultaneously with at least one of the communicating thefirst user traffic or the communicating the second user traffic,switching between: communicatively coupling a ranging channel calculator(“RCC”) of the active ranging device to the second RD port; andcommunicatively coupling the RCC of the active ranging device to thefourth RD port.
 38. The method of claim 37, wherein, when the RCC of theactive ranging device is communicatively coupled to the second RD port,the method further comprises transmitting a first ranging signal fromthe RCC to the first passive optical coupler device via the second medialink and receiving the first ranging signal back from the first passiveoptical coupler device at the RCC via the second media link.
 39. Themethod of claim 38, wherein, when the RCC of the active ranging deviceis communicatively coupled to the fourth RD port, the method furthercomprises transmitting a second ranging signal from the RCC to thesecond passive optical coupler device via the fifth media link andreceiving the second ranging signal back from the second passive opticalcoupler device at the RCC via the fifth media link.
 40. The method ofclaim 39, wherein the switching comprises using at least one of thefollowing: a wavelength tunable network interface module; or an opticalswitch.